Systems and methods for computer assisted operation

ABSTRACT

A reality system includes a display aimed at a retina, the display providing 3D images with different depth view points; a glass to selectably turn on or off view of an outside environment in front of the person&#39;s eye; a processor coupled to the camera and to the glass to selectably switch between augmented reality and virtual reality; and a wireless transceiver coupled to the transceiver to communicate with a remote processor.

BACKGROUND

The present invention relates to computer-aided reality systems.

Modern “virtual reality” apparatus typically include video and audiosignal generators that provide signals to a headset in accordance withinstructions received from a controller. The headset projects a nearfield image inches away from the viewer, typically completely occupyingthe field of the vision of the viewer's eyes. Most such virtual realitysystems alter the view presented to the viewer in response to theposition of the viewer's head, as sensed by the headset, such that theview changes in much the same manner that a far field image received bythe human eye would vary. Other system have presented an image to aviewer by scanning the viewer's eye or eyes with a modulated beam oflight. Such systems directly present the image to the viewer's retinas,thereby advantageously obviating the need for either far field or nearfield projection screens.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,454,411 discloses an apparatus for directly projectingan image onto a retina includes an optical source for generating a lightbeam to be focused on a retina. A projection device sweeps the lightbeam along the retina in an ellipsoidal pattern such that a higherspatial concentration of light pixels impinge a central portion of theretina than a peripheral portion thereof. A controller is coupled to theoptical source and the projection device for modulating the light beamsuch that a higher temporal concentration of light pixels impinge acentral portion of the retina than a peripheral portion thereof.

SUMMARY

Systems and methods are presented for augmented reality (AR) or virtualreality (VR).

VR/AR

1. A reality system for a person, comprising:

a display aimed at a retina, the display providing 3D images withdifferent depth view points;

a variable reflectance mirror to selectably turn on or off view of anoutside environment in front of the person's eye;

a processor coupled to the camera and to the variable reflectance mirrorto selectably switch between augmented reality and virtual reality; and

a wireless transceiver coupled to the transceiver to communicate with aremote processor.

2. The system of claim 1, comprising a sensor or a gyroscope coupled tothe display.

3. The system of claim 1, comprising a sound transducer coupled to thewireless transceiver to communicate audio.

4. The system of claim 1, comprising one of: EEG detector, EKG detector,GSR (galvanic skin response) detector, blood pressure detector, heartrate detector, emotion detector, bioelectric impedance (BI) sensorelectromagnetic detector, ultrasonic detector, optical detector.

5. The system of claim 1, comprising a plurality of cameras to detecteye movement, mouth movement, and hand gesture.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the cameras are mounted on a head worndevice.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein the cameras are positioned in front ofthe person.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the selective reflectance of light isbased at least in part on a desired visualization mode, wherein thedesired visualization mode is one of an augmented reality mode, avirtual reality mode, a blended reality mode, and a combination ofaugmented and virtual reality modes.

9. The system of claim 1, comprising code to allow a reflectance oflight from the outside environment when the head-mounted user displaydevice is turned off, such that the person only views the entirelyphysical objects.

10. The system of claim 1, comprising code for displaying eitherentirely virtual objects, entirely physical objects or a combination ofvirtual objects and physical objects.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the variable reflectance mirror anelectronic device positioned behind the mirror element for transmittingor receiving light of a first polarization, the mirror elementcomprising: a first substrate having first and second surfaces; a secondsubstrate having third and fourth surfaces, the second and firstsubstrates positioned in a spaced-apart relationship such that thesecond and third surfaces face each other; a first electrode carried ona surface of the first substrate; a second electrode carried on asurface of the second substrate, an electrochromic medium providedbetween the first and second substrates; and a reflective polarizer forsubstantially transmitting light of a first polarization andsubstantially reflecting light of a second polarization, the secondpolarization being opposite the first polarization, the reflectivepolarizer disposed on or near the second substrate such that theelectronic device transmits or receives light of the first polarizationthrough the reflective polarizer, wherein the reflective polarizerincludes multiple layers of plastic film.

12. The system of claim 1, comprising one or more side view variablereflectance mirrors to selectably turn on or off view of an outsideenvironment behind the person's eye.

13. The system of claim 12, comprising a mirror element for transmittingor receiving light of a first polarization including a first substratehaving first and second surfaces; a second substrate having third andfourth surfaces, the second and first substrates positioned in aspaced-apart relationship such that the second and third surfaces faceeach other; a first electrode carried on a surface of the firstsubstrate; a second electrode carried on a surface of the secondsubstrate, an electrochromic medium provided between the first andsecond substrates; and a reflective polarizer for substantiallytransmitting light of a first polarization and substantially reflectinglight of a second polarization, the second polarization being oppositethe first polarization, the reflective polarizer disposed on or near thesecond substrate such that the electronic device transmits or receiveslight of the first polarization through the reflective polarizer,wherein the reflective polarizer includes multiple layers of plasticfilm.

14. The system of claim 1, comprising virtual pain killer code todistract the person and generate an experience of extreme, disturbing,or unexpected fear, stress, or pain, and that involves or threatensserious injury, perceived serious injury, or death to the person orsomeone else.

15. The system of claim 1, a content generator driving the head-mounteddevice to keep the person busy most of the time and to distract theperson with a loud noise or a distracting video at a selected time.

16. The system of claim 1, comprising multimedia code to stimulaterelease of adrenaline and to noradrenaline from the medulla of theadrenal glands.

17. The system of claim 1, comprising multimedia code to stimulaterelease of catecholamines at neuroreceptor sites.

18. The system of claim 1, comprising code to stimulate neuron firingsin a locus ceruleus.

19. The system of claim 1, comprising multimedia code to stimulaterelease of adrenaline and to noradrenaline from the medulla of theadrenal glands.

20. The system of claim 1, comprising multimedia code to activate asympathetic nervous system and release of norepinephrine from nerveendings acting on a heart, blood vessels, respiratory center or toactivate a hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis.

3D Kinematics and Image Fusion Visualization System

1. A method, comprising:

-   -   wearing a head-mounted device;    -   accessing patient medical data from one or more medical scanning        devices;    -   capturing patient movement data;    -   fusing the medical data and movement data and driving the        head-mounted device to provide customized scenes to the user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the head-mounted device comprises anaugmented reality device or a virtual reality device.

3. The method of claim 1, comprising generating a list of one or morejoint treatment plans and/or surgery plans for a joint of a patient.

4. The method of claim 1, comprising: obtaining 3D kinematic data of thejoint in movement; characterizing a joint function and applying thefunction to a plurality of treatment plans and/or surgery plans toidentify one or more joint treatment plans and/or surgery plans for thepatient.

5. The method of claim 1, comprising simulating the one or more jointtreatment plans and/or surgery plans using the 3D kinematic data toproduce a plurality of modified 3D kinematic data and rendering thesimulated images on the head-mounted device.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising comparing the plurality ofmodified 3D kinematic data to kinematic data for a healthy joint modelto optimize one or more treatment plans and/or surgery plans for thepatient.

7. The method of claim 5, comprising applying a pattern recognitiontechnique on the modified 3D kinematic data, the pattern recognitiontechnique comprising one of: a parametric or non-parametric technique, ahidden Markov model (HMM) network, a neural network, a nearest neighborclassification technique, a projection technique, a decision treetechnique, a stochastic method, a genetic algorithms and an unsupervisedlearning and clustering technique.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the comparing further comprisesclassifying the modified 3D kinematic data of the joint of the patient,to which were applied the pattern recognition technique, in one ofseveral classes of known knee joint treatment plan and/or surgery plan.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the obtaining 3D kinematic data from a3D kinematic sensor comprises obtaining 3D kinematic data from at leastone of: a camera, an accelerometer, an electromagnetic sensor, agyroscope, an optical sensor.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising: obtaining, from a 3Dstatic imagery sensor, 3D static imagery data of the joint in a staticposition; merging the 3D kinematic data and the 3D static imagery dataof the joint, to produce merged 3D joint data for the joint of thepatient; and using the 3D joint data to produce and display a 3Danimation of the joint.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising simulating the one or morejoint treatment plans and/or surgery plans using the 3D joint data toproduce a plurality of modified 3D joint data.

12. The method of claim 4, further comprising calibrating the 3D jointdata for a healthy joint model to adapt to measurements of the patientand thereby produce calibrated 3D joint data for use as 3D joint datafor comparison to the plurality of modified 3D joint data.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising recalibrating the 3Djoint data for a healthy joint model to adapt to measurements of thepatient and thereby produce recalibrated 3D joint data for use as the 3Djoint data for comparison to the plurality of modified 3D joint data.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the recalibrating comprisesperforming one of a dot by dot technique and a regionalizationtechnique.

15. The method of claim 3, wherein the joint comprises one of a knee, ashoulder, a wrist, an ankle, an elbow and a hip.

16. The method of claim 3, comprising: obtaining, from motion sensors,3D kinematic data of the joint in movement; obtaining, from a 3D staticimagery sensor, 3D static imagery data of the joint in a staticposition; merging the 3D kinematic data and the 3D static imagery dataof the joint, to produce merged 3D joint data for the joint of thepatient; and using the 3D joint data to produce and display a 3Danimation of the joint.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising simulating the one ormore joint treatment plans and/or surgery plans using the 3D joint datato produce a plurality of modified 3D joint data.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising comparing the pluralityof modified 3D joint data to joint data for a healthy joint model todetermine which one from the list of one or more joint treatment plansand/or surgery plans will produce optimal results for the patient.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the obtaining 3D static imagery datafrom a static imagery sensor comprises obtaining 3D static imagery datafrom a radiological examination device comprising one of an X-raymachine, a Magnetic Resonance Imaging machine and a CT scanning machine.

20. A method for treating a knee, comprising:

-   -   mapping injection location(s) from one or more sensors (such as        X-rays, MRI, and CT-Scans);    -   determining, from 3D kinematic data, scores characterizing a        joint function of the patient, the scores being relative to one        or more and comparing the scores to data in a database which        characterize a plurality of treatment plans and/or surgery plans        to generate the list of one or more joint treatment plans and/or        surgery plans which match the scores.

identifying best injection points and displaying the point usingaugmented reality to guide the doctor to inject HA at selected points onthe knee.

Advantages of the system may include one or more of the following. Using3D and AR/VR environments as part of a training methodology allowsstudents or workforce to experience an entirely new side of training Thetechnology breathes life back into traditional computer based learningand re-awakens the enthusiasm in users who are used to AR/VR technologyin other circles outside of training The system applies e-learning toimpart the theoretical understanding and knowledge then virtual realityscenarios to test the information learned in a life-like situation togive users the complete package. The VR enables a client to view thecompetency of the learners, see the decisions they make and how theythen react to the consequences. VR e-learning can be used to simulatethe way equipment responds; emulate the way machinery works or toreplicate soft skills such as human actions and behavior. AR/VRsimulations use basic principles of learning to produce fun, compellingand memorable end results. By modelling equipment in AR/VR, possiblydown to the last detail you could distribute a training program to allemployees or learners that will allow them to interact with the AR/VR,follow best practice procedures or carry out fault finding scenarios,all without having to access (and possibly damage) the real item.Complicated pieces of equipment, processes or systems can be recreatedusing a number of techniques. This form of e-learning allows users tolearn about mechanisms and processes that would be physically orlogistically difficult to do so in other conditions.

Highly interactive, VR environments can be used to help teach how toproperly handle dangerous conditions. By creating an environment whichsimulates a potentially harmful real-life situation or replicating apiece of dangerous equipment, the interactive scenarios remove theseconcerns and help the user gain a knowledge and understanding of thesubject matter without being put into a costly or harmful environment.The system can be used for dating to show matching people and how toapproach them. The system can be used in medical applications. Thesystem can also be used in manufacturing designs. The system can provideaugmented bionic vision, among others. Other advantages exist as well.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1A illustrates a system 1 for projecting an image onto a humanretina and for scanning the eye for medical application such as glucosesensing or for emotion sensing when blood vessels dilate;

FIG. 1B shows an exemplary waveguide for delivering images;

FIG. 1C shows an exemplary fovea visualization system;

FIG. 1D shows one augmented reality (AR) implementation using a lens;

FIG. 1E shows one AR implementation using eye glasses;

FIG. 1F shows one virtual reality (VR) implementation using a lens;

FIG. 2A shows a representation of a region of the retinalvascularization of an eye;

FIGS. 2B-2C show an exemplary autofocus engine;

FIG. 2D shows an exemplary system to detect eye abnormality and othervital signs such as heart rate, blood pressure, among others;

FIG. 3 illustrates a block diagram of a system for displaying virtualreality content to users and enabling users to modify the augmentedreality content;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating the method of rendering virtualreality content to be displayed to a user in accordance with anembodiment;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating the method of rendering virtualreality content to be displayed to the user, based on the input providedby the user;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating the method of displaying virtualreality content to the user, in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating the method of displaying virtualreality content to the user, such that the content is clearly visible tothe user, in accordance with an embodiment;

FIGS. 8A-8B is a flowchart illustrating the method of receiving gestureinput from the user and thereafter rendering content to be displayed tothe user, based on the gesture input, in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 9 is an illustration of the virtual reality content being alteredby the outcome of a gesture input, in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating the method of displaying virtualreality content to the user considering the field of view and depth offield of the user, in accordance with an embodiment; and

FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating the method of rendering virtualreality content based on the display surface, in accordance with anembodiment;

FIG. 12 illustrates display interfaces which may be presented to theuser based on the user's position and orientation, in accordance with anembodiment;

FIG. 13A is a flowchart illustrating the method of rendering virtualcontent based on the theme or the type of activity a user may beperforming, in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 13B-13C is another flowchart illustrating the method of renderingvirtual content to the user based on the theme or the type of activitythe user may be performing, in accordance with an embodiment;

FIGS. 14A-14C illustrate exemplary scenarios wherein the system may beimplemented, in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 14D-14E show another embodiment for play or virtual pain killer;

FIGS. 4F-14H illustrate exemplary selectable AR/VR systems;

FIG. 15A is a flowchart illustrating a method of receiving informationcorresponding to the user and generating virtual content based on theinformation corresponding to the user retrieved from a database module308, in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 15B is a flowchart illustrating the method of rendering virtualcontent based on the user's selection of participants in the activity,in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 15C is a flowchart illustrating the method of rendering virtualcontent based on machine learning algorithm incorporated in theprocessor, in accordance with an embodiment;

FIGS. 16A and 16B are illustrations of exemplary scenarios whereinvirtual content is rendered to a user to provide the user with ashopping experience; and

FIG. 16C is a flowchart illustrating the method of rendering virtualcontent to the user to enable the user to shop online or at virtualstores, in accordance with an embodiment.

FIGS. 17A to 17B shows exemplary processes to estimate blood pressurefor the system of FIG. 2D.

FIG. 18A shows an exemplary AR surgical system, while FIG. 18B shows anexemplary template superimposed on bones and tissues using the ARdisplay of FIG. 1.

DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1A illustrates a system 1 for projecting an image onto a humanretina and for scanning the eye. Using waveguides, 3D objects can beviewed from the projections. Data from the scan can be used for medicalapplication such as glucose sensing or for emotion sensing when bloodvessels dilate. The system 1 can be used in virtual realityapplications, augmented reality applications, or a combination thereof.

The system 1 includes a controller 2 with graphical processing units(GPUs) 3 which generates signals in accordance with processes detailedhereinafter for presentation to a modulated optical source 4, whichprovides a modulated optical beam 6 to a projection apparatus 8. One ormore cameras 7 can capture video images that can be projected by theprojection apparatus 8 to stimulate the neurons on the eye of a blindperson to enable the blind person to see at least a part of the video.The one or more cameras 7 can aim at the retina or can aim in theviewing direction of a user, depending on the application. Theprojection apparatus scans an image onto the retina of the eye 9 of aviewer, as indicated by reference numeral 10. The modulated light sourceincludes a laser or other light source, which can be used for generationof an optical image. Preferably, the light source is a laser. Themodulated light source can also include a discrete optical modulator,which is addressable and receives control signals from the controller 2.The optical modulator 4 can be of a known type, and is capable ofmodulating an optical beam with sufficient bandwidth to allow forpresentation of the image to the viewer. Those skilled in the art willnote that in certain embodiments, the light source may be modulateddirectly, without the inclusion of the discrete optical modulator. Theon-chip laser light source emits a laser light beam that travels throughthe lens and a partially-silvered mirror. The laser light beam isreflected off a MEMS scanning mirror that is oscillating to provide ascan. The MEMS scanning mirror can be a resonate transducer, as known inthe art. This device can be made to resonate at a desired frequency,either in one direction or in two directions. The resonate transducermay use a mechanically free beam of polysilicon and may also bepositioned on thin membranes or diaphragms, cantilevers, and otherflexure type mechanisms. The resonant frequency may be inducedelectronically by the scanner electronics, as known in the art. The MEMSscanning mirror has a mirrored surface and resonates at a controlledfrequency in the horizontal and vertical direction, can produce arastering scan pattern when a laser light source is reflected from itssurface. The MEMS scanning mirror may be fabricated using integratedcircuit techniques such as surface micromachining Alternativefabrication techniques also exist such as bulk micromachining, LIGA (aGerman acronym referring to lithography, electroforming, and injectionmolding), or LIGA-like machining, as known in the art. Additionalfabrication techniques such as chemical-mechanical polishing may beperformed to improve the optical quality of the mirrored surface byreducing the surface roughness.

The light emitting spots are produced by microns-sized diodes/laserspumping phosphors located above the diodes/lasers. The individual spotsof light used to make an image can all be of the same color(monochromatic) or of different colors. In the multiple color operation,the present invention uses a single or monochromatic pump source ratherthan discrete diode/laser sources of different colors. The lasers arefabricated in a two dimensional (“2D”) array format with establishedsemiconductor processing techniques and practices. The 2D laser arraysare then integrated with nonlinear optical processes such asup-conversion (anti-Stokes process) in order to obtain multiple coloroutputs. Using photons with nonlinear up-conversion materials to obtainvisible light output from a display device provides an advantage towardminiaturization of the present display. Using miniature (microns-sized)light emitting structures, such as surface emitting laser diodes,further allows for the miniaturization of the entire system conceptillustrated in FIG. 1A to a much smaller system or package. The systemuses two-dimensional arrays (mxn), of light emitting elements (photons),to miniaturize the display system to the generic manifestationillustrated in FIG. 1A. Miniaturization is also complemented throughcomponents and materials integrations in such areas as the use andintegration of micro-lens array technology and the integration of theup-conversion (phosphor) materials directly onto the surfaces of theoptics themselves.

One embodiment uses a primary waveguide includes one or more primaryplanar waveguides 51 (only one show in FIG. 1B), and one or morediffractive optical elements (DOEs) 52 associated with each of at leastsome of the primary planar waveguides 51. As best illustrated in FIG.1B, the primary planar waveguides 51 each have at least a first end anda second end, the second end opposed to the first end along a length ofthe primary planar waveguide 1. The primary planar waveguides 1 eachhave a first face and a second face, at least the first and the secondfaces (forming an at least partially internally reflective optical pathalong at least a portion of the length 110 of the primary planarwaveguide 1. The primary planar waveguide(s) 51 may take a variety offorms which provides for substantially total internal reflection (TIR)for light striking the faces at less than a defined critical angle. Theplanar waveguides 51 may, for example, take the form of a pane or planeof glass, fused silica, acrylic, or polycarbonate. The DOEs (illustratedby dash-dot double line) may take a large variety of forms whichinterrupt the TIR optical path, providing a plurality of optical pathsbetween an interior and an exterior of the planar waveguide 51 extendingalong at least a portion of the length of the planar waveguide 51. TheDOEs may advantageously combine the phase functions of a lineardiffraction grating with that of a circular or radial symmetric lens,allowing positioning of apparent objects and focus plane for apparentobjects. Such may be achieved on a frame-by-frame, subframe-by-subframe,or even pixel-by-pixel basis.

The primary planar waveguide 51 is preferably at least partiallytransparent. Such allows one or more viewers to view the physicalobjects (i.e., the real world) on a far side of the primary planarwaveguide 1 relative to a vantage of the viewer. This may advantageouslyallow viewers to view the real world through the waveguide andsimultaneously view digital imagery that is relayed to the eye(s) by thewaveguide. In some implementations a plurality of waveguides systems maybe incorporated into a near-to-eye display. For example, a plurality ofwaveguides systems may be incorporated into a head-worn, head-mounted,or helmet-mounted display—or other wearable display. In someimplementations, a plurality of waveguides systems may be incorporatedinto a head-up display (HUD), that is not worn (e.g., an automotive HUD,avionics HUD). In such implementations, multiple viewers may look at ashared waveguide system or resulting image field. Multiple viewers may,for example see or optically perceive a digital or virtual object fromdifferent viewing perspectives that match each viewer's respectivelocations relative to the waveguide system.

The optical system is not limited to use of visible light, but may alsoemploy light in other portions of the electromagnetic spectrum (e.g.,infrared, ultraviolet) and/or may employ electromagnetic radiation thatis outside the band of “light” (i.e., visible, UV, or IR), for exampleemploying electromagnetic radiation or energy in the microwave or X-rayportions of the electromagnetic spectrum.

In some implementations, a scanning light display is used to couplelight into a plurality of primary planar waveguides. The scanning lightdisplay can comprise a single light source that forms a single beam thatis scanned over time to form an image. This scanned beam of light may beintensity-modulated to form pixels of different brightness levels.Alternatively, multiple light sources may be used to generate multiplebeams of light, which are scanned either with a shared scanning elementor with separate scanning elements to form imagery. These light sourcesmay comprise different wavelengths, visible and/or non-visible, they maycomprise different geometric points of origin (X, Y, or Z), they mayenter the scanner(s) at different angles of incidence, and may createlight that corresponds to different portions of one or more images (flator volumetric, moving or static). The light may, for example, be scannedto form an image with a vibrating optical fiber.

The optical coupler subsystem collimates the light emerging from thescanning fiber cantilever The collimated light is reflected by mirroredsurface 55 into a narrow distribution planar waveguide which contains atleast one diffractive optical element (DOE). The collimated lightpropagates vertically along the distribution planar waveguide by totalinternal reflection, and in doing so repeatedly intersects with the DOEwith a low diffraction efficiency. This causes a fraction (e.g., 10%) ofthe light to be diffracted toward an edge of the larger primary planarwaveguide 51 at each point of intersection with the DOE and a fractionof the light to continue on its original trajectory down the length ofthe distribution planar waveguide via TIR. At each point of intersectionwith the DOE, additional light is diffracted toward the entrance of theprimary waveguide. By dividing the incoming light into multipleoutcoupled sets, the exit pupil of the light is expanded vertically bythe DOE in the distribution planar waveguide. This vertically expandedlight coupled out of distribution planar waveguide enters the edge ofthe primary planar waveguide 51. Light entering primary waveguide 51propagates horizontally along the primary waveguide 51 via TIR. As thelight intersects with DOE at multiple points as it propagateshorizontally along at least a portion of the length of the primarywaveguide 1 via TIR. The DOE may advantageously be designed orconfigured to have a phase profile that is a summation of a lineardiffraction grating and a radially symmetric diffractive lens. The DOEmay advantageously have a low diffraction efficiency. At each point ofintersection between the propagating light and the DOE, a fraction ofthe light is diffracted toward the adjacent face of the primarywaveguide 51 allowing the light to escape the TIR, and emerge from theface of the primary waveguide 51. The radially symmetric lens aspect ofthe DOE additionally imparts a focus level to the diffracted light, bothshaping the light wavefront (e.g., imparting a curvature) of theindividual beam as well as steering the beam at an angle that matchesthe designed focus level. A plurality of beams can extend geometricallyto a focus point, and each beam is advantageously imparted with a convexwavefront profile with a center of radius at focus point to produce animage or virtual object at a given focal plane. The generation therebyof a multi-focal volumetric display, image or light fieldcan be done,and the system can include one or more sources of red, green, and bluelaser light optically coupled into a proximal end of a single modeoptical fiber.

A computer database of graphical imagery is addressed by graphicsprocessing units (GPUs) 3 in the controller 2, such that each point (orpixel) along a sinusoidal path laser light represents an x-y pixelcoordinate in the database so as to reconstruct a coherent image to aviewer and modulated to fit physiology of the eye. For example, since ata small distance from the fovea (FIG. 1C) the human eye has very poorability to resolve sharpness or color, the system can supple the humanvisual cortex and brain's processing to integrate the entire visualfield into a cohesive image. For example, the middle of the retina,where the minimum photon flux is presented due to the maximum velocityof the raster scan, is dimmer that the ends of the retina, which receivea maximum flux of photons. The prior art systems consequently must, at aminimum, compensate for the foregoing natural occurring phenomena toeven the brightness of each of the pixels. Further, with a highconcentration of image-sensing cones at the eye's fovea, the controllerhandles rapidly declining cone concentration as a function of distancefrom the fovea to the periphery of the retina. The controller drives theretinal illumination as center-weighted, which can be the inverse of theillumination. In one embodiment, illumination of just the centralportion can be sufficient to create the desired image.

In the light source, a mirror oscillates sinusoidally, such as in anellipsoidal pattern, which causes the formation of high-resolutionimagery in a concentrated zone, while substantially lowering resolutionin a circular field around that zone. By coupling the location of thiszone of high resolution to the eye's foveal area via an eye trackingmechanism, as discussed below, a very high apparent resolution image isprovided. System bandwidth requirements are reduced. Rather than astandard pixel grid in the horizontal and vertical axes, the computercan be tasked to generate pixels in an ellipsoidal sweep with a rotatingcentral axis. This concentrates a large number of pixels into a centralzone. The laser beam can be swept in sinusoidal patterns in such amanner that each sweep of the laser beam crosses at a single point inthe x-y field, while the sweep precesses, so that a “frame” of image isrepresented by a circular field. The crossing point can be moved to anyposition within the field, via proper modulation of a mirror. As thelaser beam is swept through a spiral pattern, it can be modulated inbrightness and focus so that as the beam sweeps through the single pointit is highly focused, yet much less bright. As the beam sweeps away fromthe point, it can grow grows brighter and less focused, so that theresultant circular field is of even apparent brightness. In this mannerthe beam crossing point 802 can be of extremely high resolution (sincevirtually every sweep passes through it) and of extremely high temporalinformation (since each sweep represents a small fraction of a “frame”representing one complete spiral sweep filling the entire circularfield. For example, one complete spiral sweep of the circular fieldcould occur in one-sixtieth ( 1/60th) of a second, and consist of 525precessing sinusoidal sweeps; thus, the field could contain the sameinformation as a field of NTSC video. In contrast to this focus point ofall sweeps, the periphery of the field drops off in clarity andinformation responsive, such as in direct proportion, to the distancefrom the focus point. At the periphery of the field, resolution is low.Thus, the visual information of a frame (or field) of an image is moreconcentrated at the crossing point, and more diffuse at the periphery.

One embodiment uses a plurality of cameras 7 to provide a gesturecontrol feature. A pair of light sources can be disposed to either sideof cameras and controlled byan image-analysis system. In someembodiments where the object of interest is a person's hand or body, useof infrared light can allow the motion-capture system to operate under abroad range of lighting conditions and can avoid various inconveniencesor distractions that may be associated with directing visible light intothe region where the person is moving. However, a particular wavelengthor region of the electromagnetic spectrum is required.

It should be stressed that the foregoing arrangement is representativeand not limiting. For example, lasers or other light sources can be usedinstead of LEDs. For laser setups, additional optics (e.g., a lens ordiffuser) may be employed to widen the laser beam (and make its field ofview similar to that of the cameras). Useful arrangements can alsoinclude short- and wide-angle illuminators for different ranges. Lightsources are typically diffuse rather than specular point sources; forexample, packaged LEDs with light-spreading encapsulation are suitable.

In operation, cameras 7 are oriented toward a region of interest inwhich an object of interest (in this example, a hand) and one or morebackground objects can be present. Light sources illuminate the region.In some embodiments, one or more of the light sources and cameras aredisposed below the motion to be detected, e.g., where hand motion is tobe detected, beneath the spatial region where that motion takes place.This is an optimal location because the amount of information recordedabout the hand is proportional to the number of pixels it occupies inthe camera images, the hand will occupy more pixels when the camera'sangle with respect to the hand's “pointing direction” is as close toperpendicular as possible. Because it is uncomfortable for a user toorient his palm toward a screen, the optimal positions are either fromthe bottom looking up, from the top looking down (which requires abridge) or from the screen bezel looking diagonally up or diagonallydown. In scenarios looking up there is less likelihood of confusion withbackground objects (clutter on the user's desk, for example) and if itis directly looking up then there is little likelihood of confusion withother people out of the field of view (and also privacy is enhanced bynot imaging faces). In this arrangement, image-analysis system canquickly and accurately distinguish object pixels from background pixelsby applying a brightness threshold to each pixel. For example, pixelbrightness in a CMOS sensor or similar device can be measured on a scalefrom 0.0 (dark) to 1.0 (fully saturated), with some number of gradationsin between depending on the sensor design. The brightness encoded by thecamera pixels scales standardly (linearly) with the luminance of theobject, typically due to the deposited charge or diode voltages. In someembodiments, light sources 808, 810 are bright enough that reflectedlight from an object at distance rO produces a brightness level of 1.0while an object at distance rB=2rO produces a brightness level of 0.25.Object pixels can thus be readily distinguished from background pixelsbased on brightness. Further, edges of the object can also be readilydetected based on differences in brightness between adjacent pixels,allowing the position of the object within each image to be determined.Correlating object positions between images from cameras 7 allowsimage-analysis system to determine the location in 3D space of object814, and analyzing sequences of images allows image-analysis system toreconstruct 3D motion of object using conventional motion algorithms.

In identifying the location of an object in an image according to anembodiment of the present invention, light sources are turned on. One ormore images are captured using cameras. In some embodiments, one imagefrom each camera is captured. In other embodiments, a sequence of imagesis captured from each camera. The images from the two cameras can beclosely correlated in time (e.g., simultaneous to within a fewmilliseconds) so that correlated images from the two cameras can be usedto determine the 3D location of the object. A threshold pixel brightnessis applied to distinguish object pixels from background pixels. This canalso include identifying locations of edges of the object based ontransition points between background and object pixels. In someembodiments, each pixel is first classified as either object orbackground based on whether it exceeds the threshold brightness cutoff.Once the pixels are classified, edges can be detected by findinglocations where background pixels are adjacent to object pixels. In someembodiments, to avoid noise artifacts, the regions of background andobject pixels on either side of the edge may be required to have acertain minimum size (e.g., 2, 4 or 8 pixels).

In other embodiments, edges can be detected without first classifyingpixels as object or background. For example, Δβ can be defined as thedifference in brightness between adjacent pixels, and |Δβ| above athreshold can indicate a transition from background to object or fromobject to background between adjacent pixels. (The sign of Δβ canindicate the direction of the transition.) In some instances where theobject's edge is actually in the middle of a pixel, there may be a pixelwith an intermediate value at the boundary. This can be detected, e.g.,by computing two brightness values for a pixel i: βL=(βi+βi−1)/2 andβR=(βi+βi+1)/2, where pixel (i−1) is to the left of pixel i and pixel(i+1) is to the right of pixel i. If pixel i is not near an edge,|βL−βR| will generally be close to zero; if pixel is near an edge, then|βL−βR| will be closer to 1, and a threshold on |βL−βR| can be used todetect edges.

In some instances, one part of an object may partially occlude anotherin an image; for example, in the case of a hand, a finger may partlyocclude the palm or another finger Occlusion edges that occur where onepart of the object partially occludes another can also be detected basedon smaller but distinct changes in brightness once background pixelshave been eliminated.

Detected edges can be used for numerous purposes. For example, aspreviously noted, the edges of the object as viewed by the two camerascan be used to determine an approximate location of the object in 3Dspace. The position of the object in a 2D plane transverse to theoptical axis of the camera can be determined from a single image, andthe offset (parallax) between the position of the object intime-correlated images from two different cameras can be used todetermine the distance to the object if the spacing between the camerasis known.

Further, the position and shape of the object can be determined based onthe locations of its edges in time-correlated images from two differentcameras, and motion (including articulation) of the object can bedetermined from analysis of successive pairs of images. An object'smotion and/or position is reconstructed using small amounts ofinformation. For example, an outline of an object's shape, orsilhouette, as seen from a particular vantage point can be used todefine tangent lines to the object from that vantage point in variousplanes, referred to herein as “slices.” Using as few as two differentvantage points, four (or more) tangent lines from the vantage points tothe object can be obtained in a given slice. From these four (or more)tangent lines, it is possible to determine the position of the object inthe slice and to approximate its cross-section in the slice, e.g., usingone or more ellipses or other simple closed curves. As another example,locations of points on an object's surface in a particular slice can bedetermined directly (e.g., using a time-of-flight camera), and theposition and shape of a cross-section of the object in the slice can beapproximated by fitting an ellipse or other simple closed curve to thepoints. Positions and cross-sections determined for different slices canbe correlated to construct a 3D model of the object, including itsposition and shape. A succession of images can be analyzed using thesame technique to model motion of the object. Motion of a complex objectthat has multiple separately articulating members (e.g., a human hand)can be modeled using these techniques.

More particularly, an ellipse in the xy plane can be characterized byfive parameters: the x and y coordinates of the center (xC, yC), thesemimajor axis, the semiminor axis, and a rotation angle (e.g., angle ofthe semimajor axis relative to the x axis). With only four tangents, theellipse is underdetermined. However, an efficient process for estimatingthe ellipse in spite of this fact involves making an initial workingassumption (or “guess”) as to one of the parameters and revisiting theassumption as additional information is gathered during the analysis.This additional information can include, for example, physicalconstraints based on properties of the cameras and/or the object. Insome circumstances, more than four tangents to an object may beavailable for some or all of the slices, e.g., because more than twovantage points are available. An elliptical cross-section can still bedetermined, and the process in some instances is somewhat simplified asthere is no need to assume a parameter value. In some instances, theadditional tangents may create additional complexity. In somecircumstances, fewer than four tangents to an object may be availablefor some or all of the slices, e.g., because an edge of the object isout of range of the field of view of one camera or because an edge wasnot detected. A slice with three tangents can be analyzed. For example,using two parameters from an ellipse fit to an adjacent slice (e.g., aslice that had at least four tangents), the system of equations for theellipse and three tangents is sufficiently determined that it can besolved. As another option, a circle can be fit to the three tangents;defining a circle in a plane requires only three parameters (the centercoordinates and the radius), so three tangents suffice to fit a circle.Slices with fewer than three tangents can be discarded or combined withadjacent slices.

To determine geometrically whether an object corresponds to an object ofinterest comprises, one approach is to look for continuous volumes ofellipses that define an object and discard object segments geometricallyinconsistent with the ellipse-based definition of the object—e.g.,segments that are too cylindrical or too straight or too thin or toosmall or too far away—and discarding these. If a sufficient number ofellipses remain to characterize the object and it conforms to the objectof interest, it is so identified, and may be tracked from frame toframe.

In some embodiments, each of a number of slices is analyzed separatelyto determine the size and location of an elliptical cross-section of theobject in that slice. This provides an initial 3D model (specifically, astack of elliptical cross-sections), which can be refined by correlatingthe cross-sections across different slices. For example, it is expectedthat an object's surface will have continuity, and discontinuousellipses can accordingly be discounted. Further refinement can beobtained by correlating the 3D model with itself across time. An objectof interest can be brightly illuminated during the times when images arebeing captured. In some embodiments, the silhouettes of an object areextracted from one or more images of the object that reveal informationabout the object as seen from different vantage points. Whilesilhouettes can be obtained using a number of different techniques, insome embodiments, the silhouettes are obtained by using cameras tocapture images of the object and analyzing the images to detect objectedges.

FIG. 1D shows one AR implementation of the system of FIG. 1A as a lens.The system in FIG. 1C shows schematically an active contact lens systemin accordance with the present invention, which includes an activecontact lens 11, a power supply 14 and a base station 15. The activecontact lens 11 is formed on a transparent substrate 12, and includesone or more of a semi-transparent display 14, a display drive circuit16, a data communications circuit 18, an energy transfer antenna 20, abiosensor module 22, and embedded interconnects 24 that functionallyconnect the various components assembled on the substrate 12.Preferably, the power supply 14 is an RF power supply and the energytransfer antenna 20 is an RF energy transfer antenna adapted to receivepower via radio frequency waves for powering the components of theactive contact lens 11. Preferably, the base station 15 is an RFultra-low-power base station adapted to send and receives encrypted datavia radio waves to and from the active contact lens 11, as described inmore detail below. It is contemplated that the energy transfer antenna20 may also be utilized for transmitting and/or receiving data for thedata communications circuit 18. Alternatively, a separate antenna (notshown) may be provided in the data communications circuit 18 forexchanging data with the active contact lens 11.

The active contact lens 11 places a display 17 with light sources, forexample lasers or OLEDs, substantially on the surface of cornea. Forgenerating a sharp image on a user's retina from light generated by thedisplay 17, the system can do: i) assembling or fabricating microlenses(not shown) under each pixel of the display 17 to form a collimated beamthat may be projected to the retina such that the beam is interpreted asa far-field source; or ii) forming artificial images by determining theproper pixel switching algorithms using conventional imagingtransformations. The active contact lens 11 may incorporate thesemi-transparent display 17 that allows for providing visual informationto the user; and/or the active contact lens 11 may incorporate one ormore biosensors 13, for example to continuously monitor physiologicaland immunological conditions of the user.

The system includes EKG, EEG and EMG sensors on the eye, along withtemperature sensors. The system also includes impedance sensors forbioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) in estimating body composition,and in particular body fat. BIA determines the electrical impedance, oropposition to the flow of an electric current through body tissues whichcan then be used to calculate an estimate of total body water (TBW). TBWcan be used to estimate fat-free body mass and, by difference with bodyweight, body fat.

In one embodiment, micro-acoustic elements (piezoelectric elements) maybe placed insider or on a surface of the lens to transmit audiblesignals through bone resonance through the skull and to the cochlea. Inother embodiments, the audible signals transmitted to the user using themicro-acoustic elements may be transmitted. High quality audio can besent for secure voice communication or for listening to music/video. Theaudio can be an alarm or warning as well, for example, when the cardiacrhythm is determined to be outside a predetermined threshold based onmonitored changes of the retinal vascularization. For example, theaudible signal may be a recommended action and/or warning based oncardiac rhythm or an abnormal condition.

The radio frequency (RF) power supply 14 powers the active contact lens11 through a base antenna (not shown) which is designed to cooperatewith the RF energy transfer antenna 20 positioned on the active contactlens 11 to power the active elements on the lens 11 through the datacommunications circuit 18. It is contemplated that the power supply 14may conveniently be worn by the user (for example, attached to a belt,integrated into the user's cloths, etc.) to provide a fully mobilesystem, and keep the power supply 14 in close proximity to the activecontact lens 11. The RF ultra low-power encrypted telecommunication basestation 15, which may be constructed separate from or integral with thepower supply 14, exchanges data with the active contact lens 11. It iscontemplated that the base station 15 may also be adapted to be worn bythe user.

In one embodiment, a clear solar cell layer in the 3D chip can be usedto generate power. In another embodiment, when not displaying, a bank ofparallel LEDs can be used to generate electric power from light. The LEDPN junctions are photovoltaic. While solar cells are made with a largearea PN junction, a LED has only a small surface area and is not asefficient. Deposited on the same layer as the TFT and above the pixelelectrode is a transparent power-generating element. In one embodiment,the power generating element is a semiconductor layer made using anamorphous silicon (a-Si) photodiode that generates photoelectriccurrent. In this embodiment, light is absorbed only from the surface andin areas where the LCD is ‘off’ using an antireflective coating. Thecoating transforms the device into a 2-way mirror. The anti-reflectivecoating can consist of the amorphous silicon layer itself. By carefullychoosing the layer thicknesses, light coming from under the siliconlayer will be transmitted, while sunlight will be reflected and diffusedback into the amorphous silicon layer. Another embodiment uses aphotoactive, doped liquid crystal such as crystals with titanylphthalocyanines (TiOPc). TiOPc is quite suitable as a photoreceptivematerial for liquid crystal diodes because TiOPc has sufficient lightsensitivity at long wavelength region between 600 nm to 850 nm. Thecrystal can be formed by distributing a charge generation material (CGM)in a resin, among others. As for such CGM, for example, inorganicphotoconductive materials such as selenium or alloys thereof, CdS, CdSe,CdSSe, ZnO, ZnS, metal or non-metal phthalocyanine compounds; azocompounds such as bisazo compounds, trisazo compounds, such as squariumcompounds, azurenium compounds, perylene compounds, indigo compounds,quinacridone compounds, polyquinone-type compounds, cyanine dyes,xanthene dyes and transportation complexes composed of poly-N-carbazolesand trinitrofluorenone can be used. These compounds may be used eitherindividually or two or more kinds in combination. The crystal becomesopaque when the electrodes force a voltage across it, meaning thatphotons are captured inside the crystal. The photons generateelectron-hole pairs similar to those in a solar cell. The generatedelectron hole pairs flow to the biasing terminals, effectively supplyingpower. In this embodiment, no special coatings are needed, since lightdoes not need to be preferentially reflected, and is only absorbed inpixels that are intentionally opaque. The pixel addressing circuitryturns pixel into an opaque state by applying a voltage across the pixel.This pixel can then capture all light impinging upon it from both thebacklight and top without affecting the contrast of the display. In thisembodiment, the more photons absorbed in the dark pixels, the higher theresulting contrast. Thus, by using appropriate photoactive liquidcrystal, a portion of the absorbed photons can be turned into usableelectrical power.

One embodiment harvests electricity from WiFi signals or cellularsignals that are omnipresent. An ultra-wideband rectifying antenna usedto convert microwave energy to DC power. This energy-scavenging antennacan be formed as part of a 3D chip with sensors, antennas andsuper-capacitors onto paper or flexible polymers. The antenna cangenerate energy from WiFi, cellular signal, radio signal, and TV signalsas well as electric power lines.

The data exchanged between the active contact lens 11 and the basestation 15 may include, for example, data to the display drive circuit16 to refresh pixels in the display 17 to display the desired visualinformation. Concurrently, the biosensor(s) 13, typically disposed onthe surface of the lens 11, may sample and analyze the cornealinterstitial fluid, detect heart rate data, or the like. Biomarkermeasurement results are relayed back to the base station 15, which maybe used to assess the user's health condition. The incorporation ofbiosensor(s) 13 onto the active contact lens 11 allows, for example,continuous sampling of the interstitial fluid on a user's cornea. Thisfluid is in indirect contact with blood serum via the capillaries in thestructure of the eye and contains many of the markers that are used inblood analysis to determine a person's health condition. The samplingand analysis of this fluid allows for continuous assessment of a user'sfatigue level and early detection of infectious components withouttaking a blood sample. The same interstitial fluid can be used to assessthe user's blood glucose level allowing for continuous glucosemonitoring without blood sampling for diabetic patients.

The system can use a bio-battery or an energy storing device that ispowered by organic compounds, usually being glucose, such as the glucosein human blood. When enzymes in human bodies break down glucose, severalelectrons and protons are released. Therefore, by using enzymes to breakdown glucose, bio-batteries directly receive energy from glucose. Thesebatteries then store this energy for present or later use. Like any cellbattery, bio-batteries contain an anode, cathode, separator andelectrolyte with each component layered on top of another in a 3Dstructure that is deposited on the plastic 3D chip. Between the anodeand the cathode lies the electrolyte which contains a separator. Themain function of the separator is to keep the cathode and anodeseparated, to avoid electrical short circuits. This system as a whole,allows for a flow of protons (H+) and electrons (e−) which ultimatelygenerates electricity. Bio batteries are based on the amount of glucoseavailable. The body decomposes materials to glucose (if they are notalready in the proper stage) is the main step in getting the cyclestarted. Materials can be converted into glucose through the process ofenzymatic hydrolysis. Enzymatic hydrolysis is the process in whichcellulose (an insoluble substance) is converted to glucose by theaddition of enzymes. Once glucose is present, oxygen and other enzymescan act on it to further produce protons and electrons. Thebio-batteries use enzymes to convert glucose into energy. When glucosefirst enters the battery, it enters through the anode. In the anode thesugar is broken down, producing both electrons and protons:Glucose→Gluconolactone+2H++2e−. These electrons and protons produced nowplay an important role in creating energy. They travel through theelectrolyte, where the separator redirects electrons to go through themediator to get to the cathode.[1] On the other hand, protons areredirected to go through the separator to get to the cathode side of thebattery. The cathode then consists of an oxidation reduction reaction.This reaction uses the protons and electrons, with the addition ofoxygen gas, to produce water: O2+4H++4e−→2H2O. There is a flow createdfrom the anode to the cathode which is what generates the electricity inthe bio-battery. The flow of electrons and protons in the system arewhat create this generation of electricity.

Components of the system may also be included in a 3D plastic chip witha plurality of layers of components fabricated thereon. For example, the3D plastic chip can be monolithic such as those discussed in UnitedStates Patent Application 20120193806 entitled 3D SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICE,among others. In some embodiments, the retinal vascularizationmonitoring components may be attached as a portion of a layer. In someof the embodiments discussed herein, the battery elements may befabricated as part of the 3D IC device, or may be included as elementsin a stacked layer. It may be noted as well that other embodiments maybe possible where the battery elements are located externally to thestacked integrated component layers. Still further diversity inembodiments may derive from the fact that a separate battery or otherenergization component may also exist within the media insert, oralternatively these separate energization components may also be locatedexternally to the media insert. In some embodiments, these media insertswith 3D IC layers may assume the entire annular shape of the mediainsert. Alternatively in some cases, the media insert may be an annuluswhereas the stacked integrated components may occupy just a portion ofthe volume within the entire shape.

The active contact lens system allows for full situational awareness andmobility by enabling real-time information display to permit quickdecision-making. The potential applications in gaming, virtual reality,and training are innumerable, and will be readily apparent to persons ofskill in these arts.

FIG. 1E illustrates an example system 20 for receiving, transmitting,and displaying data. The system 20 is shown in the form of a wearablecomputing device eyeglass 22. The wearable computing device 22 mayinclude side-arms 23, a center frame support 24, and a bridge portionwith nosepiece 25. In the example shown in FIG. 1D, the center framesupport 24 connects the side-arms 23. The wearable computing device 22does not include lens-frames containing lens elements. The wearablecomputing device 22 may additionally include an onboard computing system26 and a video camera 28.

The wearable computing device 22 may include a single lens element 30that may be coupled to one of the side-arms 23 or the center framesupport 24. The lens element 30 may include a display such as the laserprojector described above, and may be configured to overlaycomputer-generated graphics upon the user's view of the physical world.In one example, the single lens element 30 may be coupled to the innerside (i.e., the side exposed to a portion of a user's head when worn bythe user) of the extending side-arm 23. The single lens element 30 maybe positioned in front of or proximate to a user's eye when the wearablecomputing device 22 is worn by a user. For example, the single lenselement 30 may be positioned below the center frame support 24.

Video Feature Tracking and Matching

The GPU 3 can help with recognizing objects, as well as rasterizing thelaser paintings to the eye. In one embodiment, the CPU and GPUs are inone device with a heterogeneous multicore microprocessor architecture,combining a general purpose processing core(s) and basic graphicscore(s) into one processor package, with different clocks for thegraphics core and the central processing core. The GPUs providethousands of processors for parallel processing, similar to the way thebrain operates in parallel.

In one embodiment, a KLT tracking process and a SIFT feature extractionprocess to enable real-time processing of high resolution video. The KLTtracking process computes displacement of features or interest pointsbetween consecutive video frames when image motion is fairly small.Feature selection is done by finding maximas of a saliency measure(minimum eigen-values of the 2×2 structure matrix obtained from gradientvectors. It is evaluated over the complete image and a subsequentnon-maximal suppression is performed. Assuming a local translationalmodel between subsequent video frames, the feature displacements arecomputed using Newton's method to minimize the sum of squared distances(SSD) within a tracking window around the feature position in the twoimages.

A multi-resolution KLT tracker allows handling larger image motion whilemultiple tracking iterations at each scale increases its accuracy.Features tracks are often lost after a few frames of tracking; hence newfeatures are selected in a particular video frame only after trackingfeatures in a few successive frames. This maintains a roughly fixednumber of features in the tracker.

GPU-KLT maps these various steps to sets of different fragment programs.The multi-resolution pyramid of the image and its gradients are computedby a series of two-pass separable convolutions performed in fragmentprograms. The KLT cornerness map is computed in two render passes. Thefirst pass computes the minimum eigen value of the 2×2 gradient matrixat each pixel and the two passes together accumulate the cornernessvalue within a 7×7 window centered at each pixel. During featurere-selection, the neighborhood of existing features is invalidated;early Z-culling avoids computations in these image regions. Thecornerness map is transferred back to the CPU where non-maximalsuppression is done to build the final feature-list. KLT trackingperforms a fixed number of tracking iterations at each image resolutionstarting with the coarsest pyramid level. Each tracking iterationconstructs a linear system of equations in two unknowns for eachinterest point, AX=B and directly solves them to update the estimateddisplacement. All steps are performed on the GPU. A SSD residual iscomputed between the two image patches of a particular KLT feature inorder to reject features tracked inaccurately. Conditional statementsare avoided in fragment programs by tracking a constant number offeatures and rejecting inaccurate tracks after the final trackingiteration on the GPU and before reading back the feature-list.

The Scale Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT) process performs extractionof interest points invariant to translation, rotation, scaling andillumination changes in images. It first constructs a Gaussianscale-space pyramid from the input image while also calculating thegradients and difference-of-gaussian (DOG) images at these scales.Interest points are detected at the local extremas within the DOG scalespace. Once multiple keypoints have been detected at different scales,the image gradients in the local region around each feature point areencoded using orientation histograms and represented in the form of arotationally invariant feature descriptor. The construction of theGaussian scale space pyramid is accelerated on the GPU using fragmentprograms for separable convolution. The intensity image, gradients andthe DOG values are stored in a RGBA texture and computed in the samepass. Blending operations in graphics hardware are used to find localextremas in the DOG pyramid in parallel at all pixel locations. TheDepth test and the Alpha test is used to threshold these keypoints; Thelocal principal curvatures of the image intensity around the keypoint isinspected; this involves computing the ratio of eigenvalues of the 2£2Hessian matrix of the image intensity at that point. The keypointlocations are implicitly computed in image-sized, binary buffers, onefor each scale in the pyramid. A fragment program compresses (a factorof 32) the binary bitmap into RGBA data, which is readback to the CPUand decoded there. At this stage, a list of keypoints and their scaleshave been retrieved. Since reading back the gradient pyramid (stored intexture memory) to the CPU is expensive, the subsequent steps in SIFTare also performed on the GPU. Gradient vectors near the keypointlocation are Gaussian weighted and accumulated inside an orientationhistogram by another fragment program. The orientation histogram is readback to the CPU, where its peaks are detected. Computing histograms onthe GPU is expensive and doing it on the CPU along with a small readbackis a little faster. The final step involves computing 128 element SIFTdescriptors. These consist of a set of orientation histograms built from16£16 image patches in invariant local coordinates determined by theassociated keypoint scale, location and orientation. SIFT descriptorscannot be efficiently computed completely on the GPU, as histogram binsmust be blended to remove quantization noise. This step is partitionedbetween the CPU and the GPU. Each feature's gradient vector patch isresampled, weighted using a Gaussian mask using blending support on theGPU. The resampled and weighted gradient vectors are collected into atiled texture block which is subsequently transferred back to the CPUand then used to compute the descriptors. This CPU-GPU partition wasdone to minimize data readback from the GPU since transferring the wholegradient pyramid back to the CPU is impractical. Moreover texturere-sampling and blending are efficient operations on the GPU and areperformed there. This also produces a compact tiled texture block whichcan be transferred to the CPU in a single readback. GPU-SIFT gains alarge speed-up in the Gaussian scale-space pyramid construction andkeypoint localization steps. The compressed readback of binary imagescontaining feature positions reduces the readback data-size by a factorof 32. The feature orientation and descriptors computation ispartitioned between the CPU and GPU in a way that minimizes datatransfer from GPU to CPU.

Video Compression

In one embodiment, the video feature tracking and matching describedabove is used to compress video. The operation is as follows:

1) send the first few minutes of video using conventional or compressedvideo and simultaneously determine predetermine facial and bodyfeatures;

2) after the start up period, for each frame determine whether thecurrent frame only has facial/body changes and if so

look for an updated position of the features and transmit a vectorindicating facial and body feature changes to the remote computer

the remote computer converts the vector of changed facial features to animage of the user's face and body position

3) otherwise, there are significant changes to the frame and so loopback to (1) to do a fresh compression cycle.

The process achieves a very high compression ratio since only a vectorof feature position changes are sent as a vector and the vector isconverted back into frame image by the remote computer.

Moreover, if significant scene changes occur (such as new participantsentering the conference, or participant picks up a book and show book tothe camera), then the system reverts back to H.264 compression of fullimage.

Face Recognition

Face detection can be performed on board the camera for autofocus of thecamera. Additionally, the face detection can be used to identify regionsin the video that should be encoded at high resolution for certainapplications.

A parallelized implementation of convolutional neural networks (CNNs) isdone with parallelizing the detection process using the GPU. Theconvolutional network consists of a set of layers each of which containsone or more planes. Approximately centered and normalized images enterat the input layer. Each unit in a plane receives input from a smallneighborhood in the planes of the previous layer. The idea of connectingunits to local receptive fields dates back to the 1960s with theperceptron and Hubel and Wiesel's discovery of locally sensitive,orientation-selective neurons in the cat's visual system. The generalstrategy of a convolutional network is to extract simple features at ahigher resolution, and then convert them into more complex features at acoarser resolution. The simplest was to generate coarser resolution isto sub-sample a layer by a factor of 2. This, in turn, is a clue to theconvolutions kernel's size.

The weights forming the receptive field for a plane are forced to beequal at all points in the plane. Each plane can be considered as afeature map which has a fixed feature detector that is convolved with alocal window which is scanned over the planes in the previous layer.Multiple planes are usually used in each layer so that multiple featurescan be detected. These layers are called convolutional layers.

The GPU supports a fast, automatic system for face recognition which isa combination of a local image sample representation, a self-organizingmap network, and a convolutional network for face recognition. For theimages in the training set, a fixed size window is stepped over theentire image and local image samples are extracted at each step. At eachstep the window is moved by 4 pixels. Next, a self-organizing map (e.g.with three dimensions and five nodes per dimension) is trained on thevectors from the previous stage. The SOM quantizes the 25-dimensionalinput vectors into 125 topologically ordered values. The threedimensions of the SOM can be thought of as three features. The SOM canbe replaced with the Karhunen-Loeve transform. The KL transform projectsthe vectors in the 25-dimensional space into a 3-dimensional space.Next, the same window as in the first step is stepped over all of theimages in the training and test sets. The local image samples are passedthrough the SOM at each step, thereby creating new training and testsets in the output space created by the self-organizing map. (Each inputimage is now represented by 3 maps, each of which corresponds to adimension in the SOM. The size of these maps is equal to the size of theinput image divided by the step size. A convolutional neural network, oralternatively a multilayer perceptron neural network, is trained on thenewly created training set.

The self-organizing map provides a quantization of the image samplesinto a topological space where inputs that are nearby in the originalspace are also nearby in the output space, which results in invarianceto minor changes in the image samples, and the convolutional neuralnetwork provides for partial invariance to translation, rotation, scale,and deformation. Substitution of the Karhunen-Lo'eve transform for theself organizing map produced similar but slightly worse results. Themethod is capable of rapid classification, requires only fast,approximate normalization and preprocessing, and consistently exhibitsbetter classification performance than the eigenfaces approach on thedatabase considered as the number of images per person in the trainingdatabase is varied from 1 to 5.

Face Detection/Gesture Detection

As discussed above, a parallelized implementation of convolutionalneural networks (CNNs) is done with parallelizing the detection processusing the GPU. This can be used for autofocus of the camera. Once theface is detected, the GPUs can also be used to detect gestures ascommands. Motion features are first computed on the input image sequence(stationary camera assumed). The face detector is then employed toobtain a user-centric representation, and again a classifier todiscriminate between gestures is learned using a variant of AdaBoost. Areal-time version of this classifier is deployed using the GPU.

To calculate the motion features, the optical flow for each frame isdetermined. The optical flow vector field F is then split intohorizontal and vertical components of the flow, Fx and Fy, each of whichis then half-wave rectified into four non-negative channels Fx+, Fx−,Fy+, Fy−. A channel corresponding to motion magnitude F0 is obtained bycomputing the L2 norm of the four basic channels. These fivenon-negative channels are then normalized to facilitate gesturerecognition in soft-real time where frame rates can be variable, and toaccount for different speed of motion by different users.

Given a vector v that represents the optical flow for a given pixel, thesystem computes v=v/(∥v∥+e), where e is used to squash optical flowvectors with very small magnitude introduced by noise. Next, each of thefive channels is box-filtered to reduce sensitivity to smalltranslations by the user performing the gesture. This final set of fivechannels: ∧Fx+, ∧Fx−, ∧Fy+, ∧Fy−, ∧F0 will be used as the motionfeatures for each frame.

A gesture is represented as a collection of movements required tocomplete a single phase of the gesture, rather than just capture asubset of the gesture phase. Hence, the system aggregates the motionfeatures over a temporal history of the last k frames, for some k whichis large enough to capture all frames from a gesture phase.

Face detection is used to create a normalized, user centric view of theuser. The image is scaled based on the radius of the detected face, andis then cropped and centered based on the position of the face. Theframe is cropped and resized to a 50×50 pixel region centered around theuser. All five motion feature channels described above are flattenedinto a single vector which will be used to determine the gesture beingperformed.

A multi-class boosting process AdaBoost is used such as the one athttp://multiboost.sourceforge.net AdaBoost takes the motion features asinput. The supervised training is based on a set of labeled gestures. Aset of weak learners is generated based on thresholding value from aparticular component of the motion feature vector. The output of thefinal strong learner on motion feature v for class label is determinedusing weights chosen by AdaBoost.

Panaroma Stitching

The GPUs 3 of can perform panaroma stitching so that the user can see a180 degree immersive view. The GPU operations are done pipeline fashionas follows: Radial Distortion Correction. Next, the GPUs performKeypoint Detection & Extraction (Shi-Tomasi/SIFT). Keypoint Matching isdone, and the GPUs recover Homography (RANSAC). Next, the GPUs create aLaplacian Pyramid. A Projective Transform is done, and a Multi-BandBlend is the last stage of the pipeline.

Object Recognition

The CPU/GPU can identify video objects and then generate metadata forvideo objects contained within the captured video frames. For each ofthe captured video frames, the CPU/GPUs may execute program instructionsto: (i) detect whether the video frame contains a video object, (ii)generate meta data for each detected video object, and (iii) cause datastorage to store the relevant portions of the video and the metadatadescribing objects in the video for search purposes.

Generating the metadata may be carried out in various ways. Forinstance, generating the meta data may be carried out by segmentingvideo objects within a video frame and then representing features ofeach segmented video object. As an example, the feature representationmay be color appearance information, that is, the analytical data maycomprise color data based on the color or colors of a video object. Theanalytical data based on the color or colors of a video object mayinclude any of a variety of color data. For example, for any given videoobject, the color data may include Red Green Blue (RGB) color spacedata, Hue Saturation Value (HSV) color space data, YCrCb color spacedata, and/or YUV color space data.

As another example, the metadata may include data based on pixelintensity, data indicating which pixels are part of the video object, aunique identifier of the video object, and/or structural informationassociated with the video object. The structural information may includeinformation pertaining to edges, curvature, and/or texture of the videoobject, for example. The structural information may include informationthat indicates how close a structure of the video object matches acircle, rectangle, star, or some other arbitrary shape. The metadata mayalso include confidence measures of the other types of data in themetadata. The confidence measures may indicate a determination of howlikely a video object is a given type of object, such as a vehicle,person, animal, bag, or some other type of object.

In one embodiment, the GPU detects an object using color and then tracksthe object by:

-   -   1. Create a masking image by comparing each pixel with a target        color value. Convert pixels that fall within the range to white,        and convert those that fall outside the range to black.    -   2. Find the centroid of the target color. The centroid of the        tracked color defines the center position for the overlay image.        A multipass pixel-processing kernel is used to compute a        location. The output of this phase is a 1×1-pixel image,        containing the coordinate of the centroid in the first two        components (pixel.rg) and the area in the third component        (pixel.b). The area is used to estimate the distance of the        object from the camera.    -   3. Composite an image over the detected object. Assuming the        shape of the object does not change with respect to the frame,        then the change in area of the tracked color is proportional to        the square of the distance of the object from the viewer. This        information is used to scale the overlay image, so that the        overlay image increases or decreases in size appropriately.

In another embodiment, Shape-Based Matching (SBM) is used forrecognizing partially occluded objects which is very robust againstillumination changes. It is closely related to correlation. The maindifference is that SBM uses the inner product of normalized edgegradient vectors as similarity measure instead of raw image intensity.To recognize an object, the search image is correlated with the modelusing the similarity measure of SBM. The model image is fitted in allpossible translations within the search image and a score is assigned toeach position. As correlation based methods do not cope with any otherobject transformation those must be handled by evaluating the results ofmultiple correlations.

In one embodiment, a Hough transform (HT) can be used to recognize anyanalytically describable shape]. A generalization of the Hough transform(GHT) who manages any discrete shape is also available [1]. Ulrichpresents a modification of the generalized Hough transform (MGHT),gaining real-time performance by taking advantage of resolutionhierarchies, which is not as straight forward as it might first seem.The principles of it are described below. Initially, a model of theobject to be recognized is generated. A gradient map is generated fromthe model image and edges are extracted. Then a table, mapping edgegradient direction (represented as an angle) to offset vectors to thecenter of the model, is created.

In the search procedure a gradient map of the search image is used. Foreach gradient direction (represented as an angle) a number ofdisplacement vectors are looked up using the table. A vote is placed oneach position pointed at by a displacement vector. If the point belongsto an edge of the object, at least one of the vectors point at thecenter of the object that is to be found, and a vote will be placed forthat position. After this is done, a peak has appeared in the votingspace at the center of the object as this is the single point that themost dislocation vectors points at (at least one for each gradientbelonging to the edge of the object in the search image).

To utilize a resolution pyramid the model image is divided into tilesfor all levels but the coarsest. A separate lookup table is generatedfor each tile. Searching then begins with a regular search at thecoarsest pyramid level which yields a coarse position of the objectwhich will be refined for each level in the pyramid.

In the refinement, the entire gradient map is considered as before, butonly the mapping table connected to the tiles that have dislocationvectors pointing to a neighborhood of the known position are evaluatedfor each gradient. This way the amount of votes to place, and the votingspace itself is much smaller than before.

In another embodiment, a chamfer distance transform of an edge image isused as a model. Another edge image is extracted from the search image.To find the position of the object a similarity measure is evaluated foreach potential position (as for cross correlation). The similaritymeasure is the mean distance from each edge in the search image to theclosest edge in the model for the current translation. This is obtainedby accumulating samples from the distance map of the model for each edgein the search image. If there is a perfect match, the mean distance is0.

Other object recognition techniques can be used to tap into the GPU'sparallel stream processing.

Eye Scanning System

In one mode, the LED of the display 17 can be operated in reverse as animage sensor. In this mode, one of the LED is used to project light intothe retina, and the remaining LEDs are operated in reverse as imagingsensors.

Referring now to FIG. 2A, a representation of a region of the retinalvascularization of an eye is depicted. In particular, a series ofvessels are shown as they would be viewed from the anterior portion ofthe eye by an imaging scanner. In the present exemplary representation,the vessels branch off each other forming a dense pattern that can beuseful to study the vessel tortuosity, the angle and number ofbifurcations, and the length to width ratio. Monitoring temporal changesof the vessels or their overall structures can be useful to predict riskto cardiac conditions including, for example, microvascular disease ordiabetes, and cardiac rhythm. The region of the retinal vascularizationof an eye of FIG. 2A is illustrated with a digital overlay useful forthe analysis of changes of the retinal vascularization. In particular,the exemplary overlay can be useful to divide the observed region of theretinal vascularization into concentric grid sections that can be usedfor filtering and/or image segmentation. In some embodiments, gridsections may take other forms such including line patterns and the like.Concentric grid sections however may be preferred for filtering andimage segmentation due to the arcuate shape of the cornea conforming tothe spherical shape of the eye. When eye movement or flickering preventsprocessing of the different segmented portions, image processingtechniques that include edge recognition can be used to connect thedifferent segments allowing for the analysis of the portion of theretinal vascularization being monitored. In the present example, changesof each vessel may be identified in relation to each of the particularconcentric regions A, B, or C. By focusing the image analysis to aspecific portion/region, the amount of image processing and analysis canbe reduced thereby lowering power and processing requirements. Forexample, the frequency in which each of the regions is imaged can bealternated depending on the changes in pulse detected. In anotherscenario, only a first region that includes a segment of a pulsatingvessel may be monitored until a change that falls outside apredetermined threshold is detected. Average changes in vessel diameterduring the cardiac cycle may be approximately 1.2 μm for arteries and1.6 μm for veins. Accordingly, a signal may be outputted once a changein diameter of an identified artery is less than 0.8 μm and greater than1.6 μm over a short period of time. Similarly, a change in the diameterof a vein that is less than 1.2 μm or greater than 2.0 μm may trigger asignal. The signal may activate additional sensors, increase the rate ofimage capture, record the abnormality, and/or send a message to theuser. The message can be sent to the user via an audio signal and/or avisual signal provided by the ophthalmic device itself or a device inwireless communication with the ophthalmic device. The width or diameterof a vessel may be monitored at point 45. Point 45 may have beenidentified as a positive pulsating point of reference during an initialretinal examination using high definition imaging technique includingmydriatic and/or nonmydriatic retinal screenings. When an abnormalchange in diameter or rate of pulsations is initially detected, point ofreference 45 can be analyzed in conjunction with point of reference 610pointing to the same vessel. Analysis at both points of reference may beused to provide the system with more measurements for the determinationof blood pressure, for example. In some embodiments, other referencepoints on pulsating/non-pulsating vessels in a different region may alsobe monitored, simultaneously or in alternating modes, to ensure that thechange is uniform throughout the vascularization. For example, atadditional point of reference 55 in region C.

The device 100 of the present disclosure may be a contact lens restingon the anterior surface of a patient's eye 110. The contact lens may bea soft hydrogel lens and can include a silicone containing component. A“silicone-containing component” is one that contains at least one[—Si—O—] unit in a monomer, macromer or prepolymer. Preferably, thetotal Si and attached O are present in the silicone-containing componentin an amount greater than about 20 weight percent, and more preferablygreater than 30 weight percent of the total molecular weight of thesilicone-containing component. Useful silicone-containing componentspreferably comprise polymerizable functional groups such as acrylate,methacrylate, acrylamide, methacrylamide, vinyl, N-vinyl lactam,N-vinylamide, and styryl functional groups.

Embedded by the hydrogel portion partially or entirely, or in someembodiments placed onto the hydrogel portion, can be a functionalizedmedia insert 150. The media insert 150 can be used to encapsulatefunctionalized elements 105, including electronic and electromechanicalelements, and in some embodiments one or more energy source (in section140 magnified in FIG. 2B). In some embodiments, the functionalizedelements 105 can preferably be located outside of the optical zone 175,such that the device does not interfere with the patient's sight.Functionalized elements 105 may be powered through an external means,energy harvesters, and/or energization elements contained in theophthalmic device 100. For example, in some embodiments the power may bereceived using an antenna receiving RF signals that is in communicationwith the electronic elements 105.

Optical Correction

An optical correction media insert 150 can be used and can be fullyencapsulated to protect and contain the electronic components. Incertain embodiments, the encapsulating material may be semi-permeable,for example, to prevent specific substances, such as water, fromentering the media insert and to allow specific substances, such asambient gasses, fluid samples, and/or the byproducts of reactions withinenergization elements, to penetrate and/or escape from the media insert.The media insert may be included in/or the lens, which may also comprisea polymeric biocompatible material. The device may include a rigidcenter, soft skirt design wherein a central rigid optical elementcomprises the media insert. In some specific embodiments, the mediainsert may be in direct contact with the atmosphere and/or the cornealsurface on respective anterior and posterior surfaces, or alternatively,the media insert may be encapsulated in the device. The periphery of theophthalmic device may be a soft skirt material, including, for example,a hydrogel material. The system can provide an environment to monitorthe retinal microvascularization.

The insert 150 can be a conventional contact lens, or can be computercontrolled to provide the best focusing, in particular for elderpatients with short and long range reading issues that require bifocalglasses. In one embodiment shown in FIGS. 2B-2C,lens element 103 is asingle lens element of a lens stack that is mounted within a camera.Representatively, as illustrated in FIG. 1A, lens element 103 is mountedwithin autofocus actuator 100. Lens stack 105, which includes lenselements 105A, 105B and 105C, and image sensor 107 are mounted behindlens element 103. The object of interest 119 is positioned in front oflens element 103. According to this arrangement, when lens element 103is in the resting position, it is at a focal position of maximum focusdistance, i.e., a position for focus at infinity Thus, adjusting lenselement 103 in a direction of arrow 117 moves lens element 103 closer tothe object of interest and decreases the focus distance so that theassociated camera can focus on objects, which are outside of the focusdistance when lens element 103 is in the resting state. This secondfocal position can be any focal position other than the focal positionfor focus at infinity. Representatively, when power is applied toactuator 100, lens element 103 moves in a direction of arrow 117 to anynumber of focal positions within the range of movement. The range ofmovement is preferably any range which ensures that deflection beam 118remains in a deflected or biased position. For example, the range ofmovement may be between the resting focal position illustrated in FIG.1A (see also FIG. 2A) and the plane of support member 102.

Movement of lens element 103 may be driven by electrostatic actuator106. In one embodiment, electrostatic actuator 106 may be a comb drivehaving a stationary drive portion 108 and a movable drive portion 110.Stationary drive portion 108 and movable drive portion 110 may includefingerswhich interlock with one another to drive movement of stationarydrive portion 108 with respect to movable drive portion 110.Representatively, in one embodiment, stationary drive portion 108 ismounted to support member 102 while movable drive portion 110 issuspended in front of stationary drive portion 108 such that theapplication of a voltage moves movable drive portion 110 in a directionof arrow 117 while stationary drive portion remains stationary.

To move movable drive portion 110 in the desired direction when avoltage is applied, movable drive portion 110 must be displaced withrespect to stationary drive portion 108 in the resting or non-actuatedstate as such that application of pulls movable drive portion 110 towardstationary drive portion 108. Displacement of movable drive portion 110with respect to stationary drive portion 108 is achieved by deflectionbeam 118. In particular, in one embodiment, deflection beam 118 is anelongated structure that extends radially inward from support member 102to lens element 103. Deflection beam 118 may frictionally engage withthe edge of lens element 103 such that when lens element 103 is loadedinto support member 102 in a downward direction (i.e., toward lens stack105), lens element 103 applies an outward force to deflection beam 118.In one embodiment, the force moves deflection beam 118 radiallyoutwards. Since this force is in turn applied along a length ofdeflection beam 118, the beam becomes unstable and buckles. This createsa bi-stable configuration in which the beam snaps out of plane,notionally in either direction. The direction of deflection may becontrolled by the direction of insertion of the lens element. In thiscase, the deflection beam 118 buckles in a downward direction, which inturn displaces movable drive portion 110 below stationary drive portion108. Movable drive portion 110, and in turn lens element 103, willremain in this position until a voltage sufficient to overcome thedownward force of deflection beam 118 and pull movable drive portion 110toward stationary drive portion 108 is applied.

It is important that deflection beam 118 remain in some degree of thebuckled configuration during operation. To maintain the buckledconfiguration, the range of movement of lens element 103 may be limitedusing any suitable limiting structure or system. For example, in oneembodiment, front case 109 having retaining arms 113A, 113B ispositioned along the front face of support member 102. Retaining arms113A, 113B are positioned above resilient arm 116 and deflection beam118 and extend down into the plane of support member. Retaining arms113A, 113B are dimensioned to contact and stop deflection beam 118 andresilient arm 116 from passing above the support member plane as movabledrive portion 110 drives lens element 103 in a direction of arrow 117.This in turn, limits the movement of lens element 103 to just below theplane of support member 102. A back case 111 may further be attached toa bottom face of support member 102 such that actuator 100 is enclosedwithin front case 109 and back case 111.

It is contemplated that any other suitable structure or system may beimplemented to limit the range of movement of lens element 103 so thatdeflection beam 118 remains in a deflected state which is below theplane of support member 102. For example, a single retaining arm thatlimits movement of movable drive portion 110 may be used. Alternatively,the voltage applied to actuator 100 may be controlled so as not to raisedeflection beam 118 beyond the desired deflected position.

In particular, movable drive portion 110A is connected to movableportion 114A, support beams 122A, 124A and lens ring 140. In addition,deflection beams 118A are connected to lens ring 140. Thus, movement ofmovable drive portion 110A also drives movement of each of thesecomponents in the same direction. Meanwhile, in-plane beams 126A and128A are independent from the moveable components and attached tostationary portion 112. Thus, in-plane beams 126A and 128A remainstationary when movable drive portion 110A moves. The loading of a lenselement within lens ring 140 applies an outward force to support ends120A, 120B and 120C causing deflection beams 118A, 118B and 118C tobuckle and assume an out-of-plane configuration. When lens element 103is loaded into lens ring 140, a force in a direction of arrows 304 isapplied to support ends 120A, 120B and 120C causing the associateddeflection beams 118A, 118B and 118C to buckle. The buckling ofdeflection beams 118A, 118B and 118C draws the movable ends attached tolens ring 140 out-of-plane in a direction parallel to the direction inwhich lens element 103 is loaded into lens ring 140. For example, inthis embodiment, lens element 103 is loaded from above and pressed downinto lens ring 140. Deflection beams 118A, 118B and 118C will thereforedeflect and pull lens ring 140 to a position that is below the plane ofsupport member 102. This position can be considered the resting positionof autofocus actuator 100 or position of the actuator in thenon-actuated state. In other words, the position of autofocus actuator100 when power is not being applied. As can further be seen from thisview, when deflection beam 118A deflects, it also pulls movable driveportion 110A down with respect to stationary drive portion 108A. Thus,movable drive portion 110A and stationary drive portion 108A aredisplaced relative to each other along the optical axis in thenon-actuated state. Deflection beams 118B, 118C and their associateddrive portions 108B, 110E and 108C, 110C operate in a similar manner.Since the in-plane beams, for example in-plane beams 126A, 128A andstationary portion 112 are independent from the movable components,these features remain in-plane with respect to support member 102. It isfurther noted that in some embodiments, the outward force, illustratedby arrow 304, on lens ring 140 caused by loading of lens element 103within lens ring, will cause other portions of lens ring 140 to be drawninward. In particular, the portions of lens ring 140 attached toresilient arms 116A, 116B and 116C may be pulled radially inward toallow the outward force in the direction of arrows 304. Each ofresilient arms 116A, 116B and 116C may include spring members 130A, 130Band 130C, respectively. Spring members 130A, 130B and 130C help tomaintain in-plane alignment of the electrostatic actuators 106A, 106Band 106C in that they allow resilient arms 116A, 116B and 116C,respectively, to expand in response to the radially inward force withoutpulling the movable drive portion away from the stationary driveportion.

Retinal Vascularization

Referring now to FIG. 2D, an enlarged portion 140 of the cross sectiondepicted in FIG. 2A showing aspects of the retinal vascularizationmonitoring system is depicted. In particular, the enlarged portion 140illustrates a hydrogel portion 116 of the ophthalmic device 100 restingon ocular fluid 112 on the anterior surface of the eye 110. Ocular fluid112 can include any one, or a combination of: tear fluid, aqueoushumour, vitreous humour, and other interstitial fluids located in theeye. The hydrogel portion 116 may encapsulate the media insert 150 whichin some embodiments can include energization elements 118, such as abattery and a load, along with components of the retinal vascularizationmonitoring system 126.

The retinal vascularization monitoring system 126 can include a wirelesscommunication element 120, such as a RF antenna in connection with acontroller 122. The controller 122 can be used to control apiezoelectric transducer 130, a pick up 135, and an electronic feedbackcircuit including an amplifier 124 and a band-pass filter 126 which canall be powered through the energization elements 118 contained withinthe media insert 150. The piezoelectric transducer 130 and the pick-up135 can resonate a signal and measure the change in the return signal toimage one or more portions of the retinal vascularization. Thepiezo-electric transducer may be placed in contact with the retina. Uponthe application of electrical pulses, ultrasound pulses emanate from itfor them to echo back to the surface and converted back to electricalpulses that can then be processed by the system and formed into animage. The images can be produced by surfaces or boundaries between twodifferent types of tissues, such as the vessels forming part of theretina and the vitreous humour of the eye. Because the vitreous humouris a relatively homogenous gelatinous mass with insignificant amounts ofsolid matter, an identified portion of the retinal vascularization maybe imaged by changing the focal depth from the transducer. The focaldepth can be adjusted by changing the time delay between the electricalpulses. By sending ultrasound pulses at different depths around anidentified pulsating vessel, the imaging definition required to identifysmall temporal changes in width and displacement can be achieved.

Retinal Scanning for Authentication

In one embodiment, the system can monitor retinal vascularization in anidentified region/zone having portions of one or more pulsating vessels.These regions/zones can be identified using imaging systems or camerasthat are capable of reproducing high definition images of themicrovascularization in the retina. Imaging systems may includenon-invasive OCT systems, or any other highly reliable mydriatic ornonmydriatic diagnostic imaging method used for geometrical measurementsof retinal structures. Depth, shape, relative position, and structure ofthe vascularization may be pre-programmed into the ophthalmic device inorder to lower processing/energy consumption requirements and reliablyidentify the target points in the areas monitored. In preferredembodiments, target points can be easily identifiable image features,such as, edges, crossing, or line boundaries of vessels.

In one embodiment, a computer can be locked after a period ofinactivity. When the user returns to the computer, a moving object canbe shown on the display screen of the computing system for the user tolook at. The system then performs eye tracking and can determine that apath associated with the eye movement of the user substantially matchesa path associated with the moving object on the display and switch to bein an unlocked mode of operation including unlocking the computer.

Eye Exercise

The treatment of amblyopia, weak eye, and strabismus, incorporates theold-fashioned patching principle with eye-exercising programs byperforming various manners of intermittent occlusion, termed herein:occlusion-and-exercising sessions. Additionally, theocclusion-and-exercising sessions are designed to avoid predictability.This is done by using a plurality of time intervals, preferably betweenthree and ten each, for occlusion and for no occlusion. For example, sixtime intervals may be provided for occlusion and six time intervals maybe provided for no occlusion. When the number of intervals is largeenough, for example, greater than three, predictability is avoided, evenif the intervals are used in sequence. It will be appreciated that thenumber of occlusion and no occlusion intervals need not be equal, andthat a greater number of intervals, for example, 20 or 501 may be used.Thus, in accordance with the present invention, a session, which maylast, for example, between 20 minutes and ten hours, is constructed of arepeated sequence of occlusion and no-occlusion intervals. It will beappreciated that gradual transitions may also be employed between noocclusion and occlusion intervals.

Amblyopia treatment, in accordance with the present invention, ispreferably employed in stages, which may be constructed as follows:

i. An initiating stage: The initiating stage is preferably employedduring the first few weeks of treatment. During the initiating stage,the occlusion-and-exercising session each day is relatively short,preferably about three hours a day, occlusion intervals are relativelyshort, preferably, less than 100 seconds, and no occlusion intervals arerelatively long, preferably greater than 60 seconds.

ii. A core stage: The core stage is preferably employed following theinitiating stage, for between several months and about a year, orpossibly longer. It represents the bulk of the treatment. During thecore stage, the occlusion-and-exercising session each day is relativelylong, preferably about eight hours a day, occlusion intervals arerelatively long, preferably, greater than 60 seconds, and no occlusionintervals are preferably between 30 and 600 seconds.

iii. A maintenance stage: The maintenance stage is preferably employedfollowing the core stage, for about 1 year. It will be appreciated thatshorter or longer periods are also possible. During the maintenancestage, the occlusion-and-exercising session each day is very short,preferably about one hour a day, occlusion intervals are relativelylong, preferably, greater than 60 seconds, and no occlusion intervalsare preferably between 30 and 600 seconds.

It will be appreciated that the occlusion-and-exercising session eachday may be broken up into several sessions, whose duration is as that ofthe recommended daily session, provided they are applied during the sameday.

Restoring Sights for the Blind

One embodiment captures sights observable from one or more eyes. Thevideo information is then provided to the laser sweeper that paints therods and cones. Such laser energy deposition on the rods/cones causes aparticular image to be displayed on the blind eye. The result is visionfor the blind.

Food Intake Determination

In an example, the AR/VR can estimate a three-dimensional volume of eachtype of food, The imaging device can estimate the quantities of specificfoods from pictures or images of those foods by volumetric analysis offood from multiple perspectives and/or by three-dimensional modeling offood from multiple perspectives. The system can use projected laserbeams to create a virtual or optical fiduciary marker in order tomeasure food size or scale. In an example, pictures of food can be takenat different times. In an example, a camera can be used to take picturesof food before and after consumption. The amount of food that a personactually consumes (not just the amount ordered or served) can beestimated by the difference in observed food volume from the picturesbefore and after consumption.

In an example, images of food can be automatically analyzed in order toidentify the types and quantities of food consumed. In an example,pictures of food taken by a camera or other picture-taking device can beautomatically analyzed to estimate the types and amounts of specificfoods, ingredients, or nutrients that a person is consumes. In anexample, an initial stage of an image analysis system can compriseadjusting, normalizing, or standardizing image elements for better foodsegmentation, identification, and volume estimation. These elements caninclude: color, texture, shape, size, context, geographic location,adjacent food, place setting context, and temperature (infrared). In anexample, a device can identify specific foods from pictures or images byimage segmentation, color analysis, texture analysis, and patternrecognition.

In various examples, automatic identification of food types andquantities can be based on: color and texture analysis; imagesegmentation; image pattern recognition; volumetric analysis based on afiduciary marker or other object of known size; and/or three-dimensionalmodeling based on pictures from multiple perspectives. In an example, adevice can collect food images that are used to extract a vector of foodparameters (such as color, texture, shape, and size) that areautomatically associated with vectors of food parameters in a databaseof such parameters for food identification. In an example, a device cancollect food images that are automatically associated with images offood in a food image database for food identification. In an example,specific ingredients or nutrients that are associated with theseselected types of food can be estimated based on a database linkingfoods to ingredients and nutrients. In another example, specificingredients or nutrients can be measured directly. In various examples,a device for measuring consumption of food, ingredient, or nutrients candirectly (or indirectly) measure consumption at least one selected typeof food, ingredient, or nutrient.

In an example, selected types of foods, ingredients, and/or nutrientscan be identified by the patterns of light that are reflected from, orabsorbed by, the food at different wavelengths. In an example, alight-based sensor can detect food consumption or can identifyconsumption of a specific food, ingredient, or nutrient based on thereflection of light from food or the absorption of light by food atdifferent wavelengths. In an example, an optical sensor can detectfluorescence. In an example, an optical sensor can detect whether foodreflects light at a different wavelength than the wavelength of lightshone on food. In an example, an optical sensor can be a fluorescencepolarization immunoassay sensor, chemiluminescence sensor,thermoluminescence sensor, or piezoluminescence sensor. In an example, alight-based food-identifying sensor can collect information concerningthe wavelength spectra of light reflected from, or absorbed by, food. Inan example, an optical sensor can be a chromatographic sensor,spectrographic sensor, analytical chromatographic sensor, liquidchromatographic sensor, gas chromatographic sensor, optoelectronicsensor, photochemical sensor, and photocell. In an example, an opticalsensor can analyze modulation of light wave parameters by theinteraction of that light with a portion of food. In an example, anoptical sensor can detect modulation of light reflected from, orabsorbed by, a receptor when the receptor is exposed to food. In anexample, an optical sensor can emit and/or detect white light, infraredlight, or ultraviolet light. In an example, a light-basedfood-identifying sensor can identify consumption of a selected type offood, ingredient, or nutrient with a spectral analysis sensor. Invarious examples, a food-identifying sensor can identify a selected typeof food, ingredient, or nutrient with a sensor that detects lightreflection spectra, light absorption spectra, or light emission spectra.In an example, a spectral measurement sensor can be a spectroscopysensor or a spectrometry sensor. In an example, a spectral measurementsensor can be a white light spectroscopy sensor, an infraredspectroscopy sensor, a near-infrared spectroscopy sensor, an ultravioletspectroscopy sensor, an ion mobility spectroscopic sensor, a massspectrometry sensor, a backscattering spectrometry sensor, or aspectrophotometer. In an example, light at different wavelengths can beabsorbed by, or reflected off, food and the results can be analyzed inspectral analysis.

In an example, a food-consumption monitor or food-identifying sensor canbe a microphone or other type of sound sensor. In an example, a sensorto detect food consumption and/or identify consumption of a selectedtype of food, ingredient, or nutrient can be a sound sensor. In anexample, a sound sensor can be an air conduction microphone or boneconduction microphone. In an example, a microphone or other sound sensorcan monitor for sounds associated with chewing or swallowing food. In anexample, data collected by a sound sensor can be analyzed todifferentiate sounds from chewing or swallowing food from other types ofsounds such as speaking, singing, coughing, and sneezing.

In an example, a sound sensor can include speech recognition or voicerecognition to receive verbal input from a person concerning food thatthe person consumes. In an example, a sound sensor can include speechrecognition or voice recognition to extract food selecting, ordering,purchasing, or consumption information from other sounds in theenvironment.

In an example, a sound sensor can be worn or held by a person. In anexample, a sound sensor can be part of a general purpose device, such asa cell phone or mobile phone, which has multiple applications. In anexample, a sound sensor can measure the interaction of sound waves (suchas ultrasonic sound waves) and food in order to identify the type andquantity of food that a person is eating.

In an example, a food-consumption monitor or food-identifying sensor canbe a chemical sensor. In an example, a chemical sensor can include areceptor to which at least one specific nutrient-related analyte bindsand this binding action creates a detectable signal. In an example, achemical sensor can include measurement of changes in energy waveparameters that are caused by the interaction of that energy with food.In an example, a chemical sensor can be incorporated into a smartutensil to identify selected types of foods, ingredients, or nutrients.In an example, a chemical sensor can be incorporated into a portablefood probe to identify selected types of foods, ingredients, ornutrients. In an example, a sensor can analyze the chemical compositionof a person's saliva. In an example, a chemical sensor can beincorporated into an intraoral device that analyzes micro-samples of aperson's saliva. In an example, such an intraoral device can be adheredto a person's upper palate.

In various examples, a food-consumption monitor or food-identifyingsensor can be selected from the group consisting of: receptor-basedsensor, enzyme-based sensor, reagent based sensor, antibody-basedreceptor, biochemical sensor, membrane sensor, pH level sensor,osmolality sensor, nucleic acid-based sensor, or DNA/RNA-based sensor; abiomimetic sensor (such as an artificial taste bud or an artificialolfactory sensor), a chemiresistor, a chemoreceptor sensor, aelectrochemical sensor, an electroosmotic sensor, an electrophoresissensor, or an electroporation sensor; a specific nutrient sensor (suchas a glucose sensor, a cholesterol sensor, a fat sensor, a protein-basedsensor, or an amino acid sensor); a color sensor, a colorimetric sensor,a photochemical sensor, a chemiluminescence sensor, a fluorescencesensor, a chromatography sensor (such as an analytical chromatographysensor, a liquid chromatography sensor, or a gas chromatography sensor),a spectrometry sensor (such as a mass spectrometry sensor), aspectrophotometer sensor, a spectral analysis sensor, or a spectroscopysensor (such as a near-infrared spectroscopy sensor); and alaboratory-on-a-chip or microcantilever sensor.

In an example, a food-consumption monitor or food-identifying sensor canbe an electromagnetic sensor. In an example, a device for measuring foodconsumption or identifying specific nutrients can emit and measureelectromagnetic energy. In an example, a device can expose food toelectromagnetic energy and collect data concerning the effects of thisinteraction which are used for food identification. In various examples,the results of this interaction can include measuring absorption orreflection of electromagnetic energy by food. In an example, anelectromagnetic sensor can detect the modulation of electromagneticenergy that is interacted with food.

In an example, an electromagnetic sensor that detects food or nutrientconsumption can detect electromagnetic signals from the body in responseto the consumption or digestion of food. In an example, analysis of thiselectromagnetic energy can help to identify the types of food that aperson consumes. In an example, a device can measure electromagneticsignals emitted by a person's stomach, esophagus, mouth, tongue,afferent nervous system, or brain in response to general foodconsumption. In an example, a device can measure electromagnetic signalsemitted by a person's stomach, esophagus, mouth, tongue, afferentnervous system, or brain in response to consumption of selected types offoods, ingredients, or nutrients.

In various examples, a sensor to detect food consumption or identifyconsumption of a selected type of nutrient can be selected from thegroup consisting of: neuroelectrical sensor, action potential sensor,ECG sensor, EKG sensor, EEG sensor, EGG sensor, capacitance sensor,conductivity sensor, impedance sensor, galvanic skin response sensor,variable impedance sensor, variable resistance sensor, interferometer,magnetometer, RF sensor, electrophoretic sensor, optoelectronic sensor,piezoelectric sensor, and piezocapacitive sensor.

In an example, a food-consumption monitor or food-identifying sensor canbe a location sensor. In an example, such a sensor can be geographiclocation sensor or an intra-building location sensor. A device fordetecting food consumption and/or indentifying a selected type of food,ingredient, or nutrient consumed can use information concerning aperson's location as part of the means for food consumption detectionand/or food identification. In an example, a device can identify when aperson in a geographic location that is associated with probable foodconsumption. In an example, a device can use information concerning theperson's geographic location as measured by a global positioning systemor other geographic location identification system. In an example, if aperson is located at a restaurant with a known menu or at a store with aknown food inventory, then information concerning this menu or foodinventory can be used to narrow down the likely types of food beingconsumed. In an example, if a person is located at a restaurant, thenthe sensitivity of automated detection of food consumption can beadjusted. In an example, if a person is located at a restaurant orgrocery store, then visual, auditory, or other information collected bya sensor can be interpreted within the context of that location.

In an example, a device can identify when a person is in a locationwithin a building that is associated with probable food consumption. Inan example, if a person is in a kitchen or in a dining room within abuilding, then the sensitivity of automated detection of foodconsumption can be adjusted. In an example, a food-consumptionmonitoring system can increase the continuity or level of automatic datacollection when a person is in a restaurant, in a grocery store, in akitchen, or in a dining room. In an example, a person's location can beinferred from analysis of visual signals or auditory signals instead ofvia a global positioning system. In an example, a person's location canbe inferred from interaction between a device and local RF beacons orlocal wireless networks.

In an example, a sensor to monitor, detect, or sense food consumption orto identify consumption of a selected type of food, ingredient, ornutrient can be a wearable sensor that is worn by the person whose foodconsumption is monitored, detected, or sensed. In an example, a wearablefood-consumption monitor or food-identifying sensor can be worn directlyon a person's body. In an example a wearable food-consumption monitor orfood-identifying sensor can be worn on, or incorporated into, a person'sclothing.

In various examples, a device for measuring a person's consumption of atleast one selected type of food, ingredient, or nutrient can providefeedback to the person that is selected from the group consisting of:feedback concerning food consumption (such as types and amounts offoods, ingredients, and nutrients consumed, calories consumed, caloriesexpended, and net energy balance during a period of time); informationabout good or bad ingredients in nearby food; information concerningfinancial incentives or penalties associated with acts of foodconsumption and achievement of health-related goals; informationconcerning progress toward meeting a weight, energy-balance, and/orother health-related goal; information concerning the calories ornutritional components of specific food items; and number of caloriesconsumed per eating event or time period.

In various examples, a device for measuring a person's consumption of atleast one selected type of food, ingredient, or nutrient can providefeedback to the person that is selected from the group consisting of:augmented reality feedback (such as virtual visual elements superimposedon foods within a person's field of vision); changes in a picture orimage of a person reflecting the likely effects of a continued patternof food consumption; display of a person's progress toward achievingenergy balance, weight management, dietary, or other health-relatedgoals; graphical display of foods, ingredients, or nutrients consumedrelative to standard amounts (such as embodied in pie charts, barcharts, percentages, color spectrums, icons, emoticons, animations, andmorphed images); graphical representations of food items; graphicalrepresentations of the effects of eating particular foods; holographicdisplay; information on a computer display screen (such as a graphicaluser interface); lights, pictures, images, or other optical feedback;touch screen display; and visual feedback throughelectronically-functional eyewear.

In various examples, a device for measuring a person's consumption of atleast one selected type of food, ingredient, or nutrient can providefeedback to the person that is selected from the group consisting of:advice concerning consumption of specific foods or suggested foodalternatives (such as advice from a dietician, nutritionist, nurse,physician, health coach, other health care professional, virtual agent,or health plan); electronic verbal or written feedback (such as phonecalls, electronic verbal messages, or electronic text messages); livecommunication from a health care professional; questions to the personthat are directed toward better measurement or modification of foodconsumption; real-time advice concerning whether to eat specific foodsand suggestions for alternatives if foods are not healthy; socialfeedback (such as encouragement or admonitions from friends and/or asocial network); suggestions for meal planning and food consumption foran upcoming day; and suggestions for physical activity and caloricexpenditure to achieve desired energy balance outcomes.

In an example, a device for measuring a person's consumption of at leastone selected type of food, ingredient, or nutrient can identify andtrack the selected types and amounts of foods, ingredients, or nutrientsthat the person consumes in an entirely automatic manner. In an example,such identification can occur in a partially automatic manner in whichthere is interaction between automated and human identification methods.

In an example, a device for measuring a person's consumption of at leastone selected type of food, ingredient, or nutrient can identify andtrack food consumption at the point of selection or point of sale. In anexample, a device for monitoring food consumption or consumption ofselected types of foods, ingredients, or nutrients can approximate suchmeasurements by tracking a person's food selections and purchases at agrocery store, at a restaurant, or via a vending machine. Trackingpurchases can be relatively easy to do, since financial transactions arealready well-supported by existing information technology. In anexample, such tracking can be done with specific methods of payment,such as a credit card or bank account. In an example, such tracking canbe done with electronically-functional food identification means such asbar codes, RFID tags, or electronically-functional restaurant menus.Electronic communication for food identification can also occur betweena food-consumption monitoring device and a vending machine.

In an example, a device for measuring a person's consumption of at leastone selected type of food, ingredient, or nutrient can identify foodusing information from a food's packaging or container. In an example,this information can be detected optically by means of a picture oroptical scanner. In an example, food can be identified directly byautomated optical recognition of information on food packaging, such asa logo, label, or barcode. In various examples, optical information on afood's packaging or container that is used to identify the type and/oramount of food can be selected from the group consisting of: bar code,food logo, food trademark design, nutritional label, optical textrecognition, and UPC code. With respect to meals ordered at restaurants,some restaurants (especially fast-food restaurants) have standardizedmenu items with standardized food ingredients. In such cases,identification of types and amounts of food, ingredients, or nutrientscan be conveyed at the point of ordering (via anelectronically-functional menu) or purchase (via purchase transaction).In an example, food can be identified directly by wireless informationreceived from a food display, RFID tag, electronically-functionalrestaurant menu, or vending machine. In an example, food or itsnutritional composition can be identified directly by wirelesstransmission of information from a food display, menu, food vendingmachine, food dispenser, or other point of food selection or sale and adevice that is worn, held, or otherwise transported with a person.

However, there are limitations to estimating food consumption based onfood selections or purchases in a store or restaurant. First, a personmight not eat everything that they purchase through venues that aretracked by the system. The person might purchase food that is eaten bytheir family or other people and might throw out some of the food thatthey purchase. Second, a person might eat food that they do not purchasethrough venues that are tracked by the system. The person might purchasesome food with cash or in venues that are otherwise not tracked. Theperson might eat food that someone else bought, as when eating as aguest or family member. Third, timing differences between when a personbuys food and when they eat it, especially for non-perishable foods, canconfound efforts to associate caloric intake with caloric expenditure tomanage energy balance during a defined period of time. For thesereasons, a robust device for measuring food consumption should (also) beable to identify food at the point of consumption.

In an example, a device, method, or system for measuring a person'sconsumption of at least one selected type of food, ingredient, ornutrient can identify and track a person's food consumption at the pointof consumption. In an example, such a device, method, or system caninclude a database of different types of food. In an example, such adevice, method, or system can be in wireless communication with anexternally-located database of different types of food. In an example,such a database of different types of food and their associatedattributes can be used to help identify selected types of foods,ingredients, or nutrients. In an example, a database of attributes fordifferent types of food can be used to associate types and amounts ofspecific ingredients, nutrients, and/or calories with selected types andamounts of food.

In an example, such a database of different types of foods can includeone or more elements selected from the group consisting of: food color,food name, food packaging bar code or nutritional label, food packagingor logo pattern, food picture (individually or in combinations withother foods), food shape, food texture, food type, common geographic orintra-building locations for serving or consumption, common orstandardized ingredients (per serving, per volume, or per weight),common or standardized nutrients (per serving, per volume, or perweight), common or standardized size (per serving), common orstandardized number of calories (per serving, per volume, or perweight), common times or special events for serving or consumption, andcommonly associated or jointly-served foods.

In an example, a picture of a meal as a whole can be automaticallysegmented into portions of different types of food for comparison withdifferent types of food in a food database. In an example, theboundaries between different types of food in a picture of a meal can beautomatically determined to segment the meal into different food typesbefore comparison with pictures in a food database. In an example, apicture of a meal with multiple types of food can be compared as a wholewith pictures of meals with multiple types of food in a food database.In an example, a picture of a food or a meal comprising multiple typesof food can be compared directly with pictures of food in a fooddatabase.

In an example, a picture of food or a meal comprising multiple types offood can be adjusted, normalized, or standardized before it is comparedwith pictures of food in a food database. In an example, food color canbe adjusted, normalized, or standardized before comparison with picturesin a food database. In an example, food size or scale can be adjusted,normalized, or standardized before comparison with pictures in a fooddatabase. In an example, food texture can be adjusted, normalized, orstandardized before comparison with pictures in a food database. In anexample, food lighting or shading can be adjusted, normalized, orstandardized before comparison with pictures in a food database.

In an example, a food database can be used to identify the amount ofcalories that are associated with an indentified type and amount offood. In an example, a food database can be used to identify the typeand amount of at least one selected type of food that a person consumes.In an example, a food database can be used to identify the type andamount of at least one selected type of ingredient that is associatedwith an identified type and amount of food. In an example, a fooddatabase can be used to identify the type and amount of at least oneselected type of nutrient that is associated with an identified type andamount of food. In an example, an ingredient or nutrient can beassociated with a type of food on a per-portion, per-volume, orper-weight basis.

In an example, a vector of food characteristics can be extracted from apicture of food and compared with a database of such vectors for commonfoods. In an example, analysis of data concerning food consumption caninclude comparison of food consumption parameters between a specificperson and a reference population. In an example, data analysis caninclude analysis of a person's food consumption patterns over time. Inan example, such analysis can track the cumulative amount of at leastone selected type of food, ingredient, or nutrient that a personconsumes during a selected period of time.

In various examples, data concerning food consumption can be analyzed toidentify and track consumption of selected types and amounts of foods,ingredients, or nutrient consumed using one or more methods selectedfrom the group consisting of: linear regression and/or multivariatelinear regression, logistic regression and/or probit analysis, Fouriertransformation and/or fast Fourier transform (FFT), linear discriminantanalysis, non-linear programming, analysis of variance, chi-squaredanalysis, cluster analysis, energy balance tracking, factor analysis,principal components analysis, survival analysis, time series analysis,volumetric modeling, neural network and machine learning.

In an example, a device for measuring a person's consumption of at leastone selected type of food, ingredient, or nutrient can identify thetypes and amounts of food consumed in an automated manner based onimages of that food. In various examples, food pictures can be analyzedfor automated food identification using methods selected from the groupconsisting of: image attribute adjustment or normalization; inter-foodboundary determination and food portion segmentation; image patternrecognition and comparison with images in a food database to identifyfood type; comparison of a vector of food characteristics with adatabase of such characteristics for different types of food; scaledetermination based on a fiduciary marker and/or three-dimensionalmodeling to estimate food quantity; and association of selected typesand amounts of ingredients or nutrients with selected types and amountsof food portions based on a food database that links common types andamounts of foods with common types and amounts of ingredients ornutrients. In an example, automated identification of selected types offood based on images and/or automated association of selected types ofingredients or nutrients with that food can occur within a wearable orhand-held device. In an example, data collected by a wearable orhand-held device can be transmitted to an external device whereautomated identification occurs and the results can then be transmittedback to the wearable or hand-held device.

In an example, a device and system for measuring a person's consumptionof at least one selected type of food, ingredient, or nutrient can takepictures of food using a digital camera. In an example, a device andsystem for measuring a person's consumption of at least one selectedtype of food, ingredient, or nutrient can take pictures of food using animaging device selected from the group consisting of: smart watch, smartbracelet, fitness watch, fitness bracelet, watch phone, bracelet phone,wrist band, or other wrist-worn device; arm bracelet; and smart ring orfinger ring. In an example, a device and system for measuring a person'sconsumption of at least one selected type of food, ingredient, ornutrient can take pictures of food using an imaging device selected fromthe group consisting of: smart phone, mobile phone, cell phone,holophone, and electronic tablet.

In an example, a device and system for measuring a person's consumptionof at least one selected type of food, ingredient, or nutrient can takepictures of food using an imaging device selected from the groupconsisting of: smart glasses, visor, or other eyewear;electronically-functional glasses, visor, or other eyewear; augmentedreality glasses, visor, or other eyewear; virtual reality glasses,visor, or other eyewear; and electronically-functional contact lens. Inan example, a device and system for measuring a person's consumption ofat least one selected type of food, ingredient, or nutrient can takepictures of food using an imaging device selected from the groupconsisting of: smart utensil, fork, spoon, food probe, plate, dish, orglass; and electronically-functional utensil, fork, spoon, food probe,plate, dish, or glass. In an example, a device and system for measuringa person's consumption of at least one selected type of food,ingredient, or nutrient can take pictures of food using an imagingdevice selected from the group consisting of: smart necklace, smartbeads, smart button, neck chain, and neck pendant.

In an example, an imaging device can take multiple still pictures ormoving video pictures of food. In an example, an imaging device can takemultiple pictures of food from different angles in order to performthree-dimensional analysis or modeling of the food to better determinethe volume of food. In an example, an imaging device can take multiplepictures of food from different angles in order to better control fordifferences in lighting and portions of food that are obscured from someperspectives. In an example, an imaging device can take multiplepictures of food from different angles in order to performthree-dimensional modeling or volumetric analysis to determine thethree-dimensional volume of food in the picture. In an example, animaging device can take multiple pictures of food at different times,such as before and after an eating event, in order to better determinehow much food the person actually ate (as compared to the amount of foodserved). In an example, changes in the volume of food in sequentialpictures before and after consumption can be compared to the cumulativevolume of food conveyed to a person's mouth by a smart utensil todetermine a more accurate estimate of food volume consumed. In variousexamples, a person can be prompted by a device to take pictures of foodfrom different angles or at different times.

In an example, a device that identifies a person's food consumptionbased on images of food can receive food images from an imagingcomponent or other imaging device that the person holds in their hand tooperate. In an example, a device that identifies a person's foodconsumption based on images of food can receive food images from animaging component or other imaging device that the person wears on theirbody or clothing. In an example, a wearable imaging device can be wornin a relatively fixed position on a person's neck or torso so that italways views the space in front of a person. In an example, a wearableimaging device can be worn on a person's wrist, arm, or finger so thatthe field of vision of the device moves as the person moves their arm,wrist, and/or fingers. In an example, a device with a moving field ofvision can monitor both hand-to-food interaction and hand-to-mouthinteraction as the person moves their arm, wrist, and/or hand. In anexample, a wearable imaging device can comprise a smart watch with aminiature camera that monitors the space near a person's hands forpossible hand-to-food interaction and monitors the near a person's mouthfor hand-to-mouth interaction.

In an example, selected attributes or parameters of a food image can beadjusted, standardized, or normalized before the food image is comparedto images in a database of food images or otherwise analyzed foridentifying the type of food. In various examples, these imageattributes or parameters can be selected from the group consisting of:food color, food texture, scale, image resolution, image brightness, andlight angle.

In an example, a device and system for identifying types and amounts offood consumed based on food images can include the step of automaticallysegmenting regions of a food image into different types or portions offood. In an example, a device and system for identifying types andamounts of food consumed based on food images can include the step ofautomatically identifying boundaries between different types of food inan image that contains multiple types or portions of food. In anexample, the creation of boundaries between different types of foodand/or segmentation of a meal into different food types can include edgedetection, shading analysis, texture analysis, and three-dimensionalmodeling. In an example, this process can also be informed by commonpatterns of jointly-served foods and common boundary characteristics ofsuch jointly-served foods.

In an example, estimation of specific ingredients or nutrients consumedfrom information concerning food consumed can be done using a databasethat links specific foods (and quantities thereof) with specificingredients or nutrients (and quantities thereof). In an example, foodin a picture can be classified and identified based on comparison withpictures of known foods in a food image database. In an example, suchfood identification can be assisted by pattern recognition software. Inan example, types and quantities of specific ingredients or nutrientscan be estimated from the types and quantities of food consumed.

In an example, attributes of food in an image can be represented by amulti-dimensional food attribute vector. In an example, this foodattribute vector can be statistically compared to the attribute vectorof known foods in order to automate food identification. In an example,multivariate analysis can be done to identify the most likelyidentification category for a particular portion of food in an image. Invarious examples, a multi-dimensional food attribute vector can includeattributes selected from the group consisting of: food color; foodtexture; food shape; food size or scale; geographic location ofselection, purchase, or consumption; timing of day, week, or specialevent; common food combinations or pairings; image brightness,resolution, or lighting direction; infrared light reflection;spectroscopic analysis; and person-specific historical eating patterns.

Patient Monitoring

Patient monitoring can include determining the cardiac rhythm from therate of pulsations of a vessel over a particular period of time and/orthe displacement/changes of vessel(s) over time. The monitoring may betriggered, for example, based on a timer function, blink actuation, orupon receiving a signal from a wireless device in communication with theophthalmic device. In some embodiments, the wireless may serve as a userinterface and may be a drug pump, smartphone, personal computer, tablet,and the such. Transmission of information with the wireless device canoccur, for example, via a RF frequency, a local area network (LAN),and/or a private area network (PAN), depending on the communicationdevice and functionality implemented by the ophthalmic device. Anaudio/visual signal alert may be sent to the user when either thedetermined cardiac rhythm and/or determined rate of vasculardisplacement are outside a predetermined threshold. For example, asignal may be outputted when the system detects that the cardiac rhythmhas increased/decreased to a hazardous level. The signal may be sentusing a wireless device in communication with the ophthalmic deviceand/or through an audible signal using micro-acoustic elements includedin the ophthalmic device. An n actuation signal may be sent to a drugdelivery apparatus to deliver a drug/active agent. The drug deliverymechanism may include, for example, a drug pump in wirelesscommunication with the ophthalmic device. Optionally the signal may becorrelated with a specific event imputed by the patient using thewireless device as a user interface. For example, through a selectionfrom a menu listing activities that can influence cardiac rhythm orblood pressure. The action and/or feedback can be recorded on a cloud toimprove future analysis, keep a medical record that can be accessed byan eye care practitioner, and/or tailor the retinal vascularizationmonitoring system to the particular patient. In some embodiments, theserecorded actions/records can also be sent/stored using the wirelesscellular device.

In addition to identifying blood pressure using imaging techniques. Thesystem can have a number of medical sensors. One embodiment includesbioelectrical impedance (BI) spectroscopy sensors in addition to or asalternates to EKG sensors and heart sound transducer sensors. BIspectroscopy is based on Ohm's Law: current in a circuit is directlyproportional to voltage and inversely proportional to resistance in a DCcircuit or impedance in an alternating current (AC) circuit. Bioelectricimpedance exchanges electrical energy with the patient body or bodysegment. The exchanged electrical energy can include alternating currentand/or voltage and direct current and/or voltage. The exchangedelectrical energy can include alternating currents and/or voltages atone or more frequencies. For example, the alternating currents and/orvoltages can be provided at one or more frequencies between 100 Hz and 1MHz, preferably at one or more frequencies between 5 KHz and 250 KHz. ABI instrument operating at the single frequency of 50 KHz reflectsprimarily the extra cellular water compartment as a very small currentpasses through the cell. Because low frequency (<1 KHz) current does notpenetrate the cells and that complete penetration occurs only at a veryhigh frequency (>1 MHz), multi-frequency BI or bioelectrical impedancespectroscopy devices can be used to scan a wide range of frequencies.

In a tetrapolar implementation, two electrodes on the wrist watch orwrist band are used to apply AC or DC constant current into the body orbody segment. The voltage signal from the surface of the body ismeasured in terms of impedance using the same or an additional twoelectrodes on the watch or wrist band. In a bipolar implementation, oneelectrode on the wrist watch or wrist band is used to apply AC or DCconstant current into the body or body segment. The voltage signal fromthe surface of the body is measured in terms of impedance using the sameor an alternative electrode on the watch or wrist band. The system mayinclude a BI patch 1400 that wirelessly communicates BI information withthe wrist watch. Other patches 1400 can be used to collect other medicalinformation or vital parameter and communicate with the wrist watch orbase station or the information could be relayed through each wirelessnode or appliance to reach a destination appliance such as the basestation, for example. The system can also include a head-cap 1402 thatallows a number of EEG probes access to the brain electrical activities,EKG probes to measure cranial EKG activity, as well as BI probes todetermine cranial fluid presence indicative of a stroke. As will bediscussed below, the EEG probes allow the system to determine cognitivestatus of the patient to determine whether a stroke had just occurred,the EKG and the BI probes provide information on the stroke to enabletimely treatment to minimize loss of functionality to the patient iftreatment is delayed.

Bipolar or tetrapolar electrode systems can be used in the BIinstruments. Of these, the tetrapolar system provides a uniform currentdensity distribution in the body segment and measures impedance withless electrode interface artifact and impedance errors. In thetetrapolar system, a pair of surface electrodes (I1, I2) is used ascurrent electrodes to introduce a low intensity constant current at highfrequency into the body. A pair of electrodes (E1, E2) measures changesaccompanying physiological events. Voltage measured across E1-E2 isdirectly proportional to the segment electrical impedance of the humansubject. Circular flat electrodes as well as band type electrodes can beused. In one embodiment, the electrodes are in direct contact with theskin surface. In other embodiments, the voltage measurements may employone or more contactless, voltage sensitive electrodes such asinductively or capacitively coupled electrodes. The current applicationand the voltage measurement electrodess in these embodiments can be thesame, adjacent to one another, or at significantly different locations.The electrode(s) can apply current levels from 20 uA to 10 mA rms at afrequency range of 20-100 KHz. A constant current source and high inputimpedance circuit is used in conjunction with the tetrapolar electrodeconfiguration to avoid the contact pressure effects at theelectrode-skin interface.

The BI sensor can be a Series Model which assumes that there is oneconductive path and that the body consists of a series of resistors. Anelectrical current, injected at a single frequency, is used to measurewhole body impedance (i.e., wrist to ankle) for the purpose ofestimating total body water and fat free mass. Alternatively, the BIinstrument can be a Parallel BI Model In this model of impedance, theresistors and capacitors are oriented both in series and in parallel inthe human body. Whole body BI can be used to estimate TBW and FFM inhealthy subjects or to estimate intracellular water (ICW) and body cellmass (BCM). High-low BI can be used to estimate extracellular water(ECW) and total body water (TBW). Multi-frequency BI can be used toestimate ECW, ICW, and TBW; to monitor changes in the ECW/BCM andECW/TBW ratios in clinical populations. The instrument can also be aSegmental BI Model and can be used in the evaluation of regional fluidchanges and in monitoring extra cellular water in patients with abnormalfluid distribution, such as those undergoing hemodialysis. Segmental BIcan be used to measure fluid distribution or regional fluid accumulationin clinical populations. Upper-body and Lower-body BI can be used toestimate percentage BF in healthy subjects with normal hydration statusand fluid distribution. The BI sensor can be used to detect acutedehydration, pulmonary edema (caused by mitral stenosis or leftventricular failure or congestive heart failure, among others), orhyperhydration cause by kidney dialysis, for example. In one embodiment,the system determines the impedance of skin and subcutaneous adiposetissue using tetrapolar and bipolar impedance measurements. In thebipolar arrangement the inner electrodes act both as the electrodes thatsend the current (outer electrodes in the tetrapolar arrangement) and asreceiving electrodes. If the outer two electrodes (electrodes sendingcurrent) are superimposed onto the inner electrodes (receivingelectrodes) then a bipolar BIA arrangement exists with the sameelectrodes acting as receiving and sending electrodes. The difference inimpedance measurements between the tetrapolar and bipolar arrangementreflects the impedance of skin and subcutaneous fat. The differencebetween the two impedance measurements represents the combined impedanceof skin and subcutaneous tissue at one or more sites. The systemdetermines the resistivities of skin and subcutaneous adipose tissue,and then calculates the skinfold thickness (mainly due to adiposetissue).

Various BI analysis methods can be used in a variety of clinicalapplications such as to estimate body composition, to determine totalbody water, to assess compartmentalization of body fluids, to providecardiac monitoring, measure blood flow, dehydration, blood loss, woundmonitoring, ulcer detection and deep vein thrombosis. Other uses for theBI sensor includes detecting and/or monitoring hypovolemia, hemorrhageor blood loss. The impedance measurements can be made sequentially overa period of in time; and the system can determine whether the subject isexternally or internally bleeding based on a change in measuredimpedance. The watch can also report temperature, heat flux,vasodilation and blood pressure along with the BI information.

In one embodiment, the BI system monitors cardiac function usingimpedance cardiography (ICG) technique. ICG provides a single impedancetracing, from which parameters related to the pump function of theheart, such as cardiac output (CO), are estimated. ICG measures thebeat-to-beat changes of thoracic bioimpedance via four dual sensorsapplied on the neck and thorax in order to calculate stroke volume (SV).By using the resistivity p of blood and the length L of the chest, theimpedance change ΔZ and base impedance (Zo) to the volume change ΔV ofthe tissue under measurement can be derived as follows:

${\Delta\; V} = {\rho\frac{L^{2}}{Z_{0}^{2}}\Delta\; Z}$

In one embodiment, SV is determined as a function of the firstderivative of the impedance waveform (dZ/dtmax) and the left ventricularejection time (LVET)

${SV} = {\rho\frac{L^{2}}{Z_{0}^{2}}\left( \frac{dZ}{dt} \right)_{\max}{LVET}}$

In one embodiment, L is approximated to be 17% of the patient's height(H) to yield the following:

${SV} = {\left( \frac{\left( {0.17\mspace{14mu} H} \right)^{3}}{4.2} \right)\frac{\left( \frac{dZ}{dt} \right)_{\max}}{Z_{0}}{LVET}}$

In another embodiment, or the actual weight divided by the ideal weightis used:

${SV} = {\delta \times \left( \frac{\left( {0.17\mspace{14mu} H} \right)^{3}}{4.2} \right)\frac{\left( \frac{dZ}{dt} \right)_{\max}}{Z_{0}}{LVET}}$

The impedance cardiographic embodiment allows hemodynamic assessment tobe regularly monitored to avoid the occurrence of an acute cardiacepisode. The system provides an accurate, noninvasive measurement ofcardiac output (CO) monitoring so that ill and surgical patientsundergoing major operations such as coronary artery bypass graft (CABG)would benefit. In addition, many patients with chronic and comorbiddiseases that ultimately lead to the need for major operations and othercostly interventions might benefit from more routine monitoring of COand its dependent parameters such as systemic vascular resistance (SVR).

Once SV has been determined, CO can be determined according to thefollowing expression: CO=SV*HR, where HR=heart rate. CO can bedetermined for every heart-beat. Thus, the system can determine SV andCO on a beat-to-beat basis.

In one embodiment to monitor heart failure, an array of BI sensors areplace in proximity to the heart. The array of BI sensors detect thepresence or absence, or rate of change, or body fluids proximal to theheart. The BI sensors can be supplemented by the EKG sensors. A normal,healthy, heart beats at a regular rate. Irregular heart beats, known ascardiac arrhythmia, on the other hand, may characterize an unhealthycondition. Another unhealthy condition is known as congestive heartfailure (“CHF”). CHF, also known as heart failure, is a condition wherethe heart has inadequate capacity to pump sufficient blood to meetmetabolic demand. CHF may be caused by a variety of sources, including,coronary artery disease, myocardial infarction, high blood pressure,heart valve disease, cardiomyopathy, congenital heart disease,endocarditis, myocarditis, and others. Unhealthy heart conditions may betreated using a cardiac rhythm management (CRM) system. Examples of CRMsystems, or pulse generator systems, include defibrillators (includingimplantable cardioverter defibrillator), pacemakers and other cardiacresynchronization devices.

In one implementation, BIA measurements can be made using an array ofbipolar or tetrapolar electrodes that deliver a constant alternatingcurrent at 50 KHz frequency. Whole body measurements can be done usingstandard right-sided. The ability of any biological tissue to resist aconstant electric current depends on the relative proportions of waterand electrolytes it contains, and is called resistivity (in Ohms/cm 3).The measuring of bioimpedance to assess congestive heart failure employsthe different bio-electric properties of blood and lung tissue to permitseparate assessment of: (a) systemic venous congestion via a lowfrequency or direct current resistance measurement of the current paththrough the right ventricle, right atrium, superior vena cava, andsubclavian vein, or by computing the real component of impedance at ahigh frequency, and (b) pulmonary congestion via a high frequencymeasurement of capacitive impedance of the lung. The resistance isimpedance measured using direct current or alternating current (AC)which can flow through capacitors.

In one embodiment, a belt is worn by the patient with a plurality of BIprobes positioned around the belt perimeter. The output of thetetrapolar probes is processed using a second-order Newton-Raphsonmethod to estimate the left and right-lung resistivity values in thethoracic geometry. The locations of the electrodes are marked. Duringthe measurements procedure, the belt is worn around the patient's thoraxwhile sitting, and the reference electrode is attached to his waist. Thedata is collected during tidal respiration to minimize lung resistivitychanges due to breathing, and lasts approximately one minute. Theprocess is repeated periodically and the impedance trend is analyzed todetect CHF. Upon detection, the system provides vital parameters to acall center and the call center can refer to a physician forconsultation or can call 911 for assistance.

In one embodiment, an array of noninvasive thoracic electricalbioimpedance monitoring probes can be used alone or in conjunction withother techniques such as impedance cardiography (ICG) for earlycomprehensive cardiovascular assessment and trending of acute traumavictims. This embodiment provides early, continuous cardiovascularassessment to help identify patients whose injuries were so severe thatthey were not likely to survive. This included severe blood and/or fluidvolume deficits induced by trauma, which did not respond readily toexpeditious volume resuscitation and vasopressor therapy. One exemplarysystem monitors cardiorespiratory variables that served as statisticallysignificant measures of treatment outcomes: Qt, BP, pulse oximetry, andtranscutaneous Po2 (Ptco2). A high Qt may not be sustainable in thepresence of hypovolemia, acute anemia, pre-existing impaired cardiacfunction, acute myocardial injury, or coronary ischemia. Thus a fall inPtco2 could also be interpreted as too high a metabolic demand for apatient's cardiovascular reserve. Too high a metabolic demand maycompromise other critical organs. Acute lung injury from hypotension,blunt trauma, and massive fluid resuscitation can drastically reducerespiratory reserve.

One embodiment that measures thoracic impedance (a resistive or reactiveimpedance associated with at least a portion of a thorax of a livingorganism). The thoracic impedance signal is influenced by the patient'sthoracic intravascular fluid tension, heart beat, and breathing (alsoreferred to as “respiration” or “ventilation”). A “de” or “baseline” or“low frequency” component of the thoracic impedance signal (e.g., lessthan a cutoff value that is approximately between 0.1 Hz and 0.5 Hz,inclusive, such as, for example, a cutoff value of approximately 0.1 Hz)provides information about the subject patient's thoracic fluid tension,and is therefore influenced by intravascular fluid shifts to and awayfrom the thorax. Higher frequency components of the thoracic impedancesignal are influenced by the patient's breathing (e.g., approximatelybetween 0.05 Hz and 2.0 Hz inclusive) and heartbeat (e.g., approximatelybetween 0.5 Hz and 10 Hz inclusive). A low intravascular fluid tensionin the thorax (“thoracic hypotension”) may result from changes inposture. For example, in a person who has been in a recumbent positionfor some time, approximately ⅓ of the blood volume is in the thorax.When that person then sits upright, approximately ⅓ of the blood thatwas in the thorax migrates to the lower body. This increases thoracicimpedance. Approximately 90% of this fluid shift takes place within 2 to3 minutes after the person sits upright.

The accelerometer can be used to provide reproducible measurements. Bodyactivity will increase cardiac output and also change the amount ofblood in the systemic venous system or lungs. Measurements of congestionmay be most reproducible when body activity is at a minimum and thepatient is at rest. The use of an accelerometer allows one to sense bothbody position and body activity. Comparative measurements over time maybest be taken under reproducible conditions of body position andactivity. Ideally, measurements for the upright position should becompared as among themselves. Likewise measurements in the supine,prone, left lateral decubitus and right lateral decubitus should becompared as among themselves. Other variables can be used to permitreproducible measurements, i.e. variations of the cardiac cycle andvariations in the respiratory cycle. The ventricles are at their mostcompliant during diastole. The end of the diastolic period is marked bythe QRS on the electrocardiographic means (EKG) for monitoring thecardiac cycle. The second variable is respiratory variation inimpedance, which is used to monitor respiratory rate and volume. As thelungs fill with air during inspiration, impedance increases, and duringexpiration, impedance decreases. Impedance can be measured duringexpiration to minimize the effect of breathing on central systemicvenous volume. While respiration and CHF both cause variations inimpedance, the rates and magnitudes of the impedance variation aredifferent enough to separate out the respiratory variations which have afrequency of about 8 to 60 cycles per minute and congestion changeswhich take at least several minutes to hours or even days to occur.Also, the magnitude of impedance change is likely to be much greater forcongestive changes than for normal respiratory variation. Thus, thesystem can detect congestive heart failure (CHF) in early stages andalert a patient to prevent disabling and even lethal episodes of CHF.Early treatment can avert progression of the disorder to a dangerousstage.

In an embodiment to monitor wounds such as diabetic related wounds, theconductivity of a region of the patient with a wound or is susceptibleto wound formation is monitored by the system. The system determineshealing wounds if the impedance and reactance of the wound regionincreases as the skin region becomes dry. The system detects infected,open, interrupted healing, or draining wounds through lower regionalelectric impedances. In yet another embodiment, the bioimpedance sensorcan be used to determine body fat. In one embodiment, the BI systemdetermines Total Body Water (TBW) which is an estimate of totalhydration level, including intracellular and extracellular water;Intracellular Water (ICW) which is an estimate of the water in activetissue and as a percent of a normal range (near 60% of TBW);Extracellular Water (ECW) which is water in tissues and plasma and as apercent of a normal range (near 40% of TBW); Body Cell Mass (BCM) whichis an estimate of total pounds/kg of all active cells; ExtracellularTissue (ECT)/Extracellular Mass (ECM) which is an estimate of the massof all other non-muscle inactive tissues including ligaments, bone andECW; Fat Free Mass (FFM)/Lean Body Mass (LBM) which is an estimate ofthe entire mass that is not fat. It should be available in pounds/kg andmay be presented as a percent with a normal range; Fat Mass (FM) whichis an estimate of pounds/kg of body fat and percentage body fat; andPhase Angle (PA) which is associated with both nutrition and physicalfitness.

In addition to eye mounted sensors, the system can work with wearablesensors, for example devices for sensing ECG, EKG, blood pressure, sugarlevel, among others. In one embodiment, the sensors are mounted on thepatient's wrist (such as a wristwatch sensor) and other convenientanatomical locations. Exemplary sensors 40 include standard medicaldiagnostics for detecting the body's electrical signals emanating frommuscles (EMG and EOG) and brain (EEG) and cardiovascular system (ECG).Leg sensors can include piezoelectric accelerometers designed to givequalitative assessment of limb movement. Additionally, thoracic andabdominal bands used to measure expansion and contraction of the thoraxand abdomen respectively. A small sensor can be mounted on the subject'sfinger in order to detect blood-oxygen levels and pulse rate.Additionally, a microphone can be attached to throat and used in sleepdiagnostic recordings for detecting breathing and other noise. One ormore position sensors can be used for detecting orientation of body(lying on left side, right side or back) during sleep diagnosticrecordings. Each of sensors can individually transmit data to a cloudserver using wired or wireless transmission. Alternatively, all sensors40 can be fed through a common bus into a single transceiver for wiredor wireless transmission. The transmission can be done using a magneticmedium such as a floppy disk or a flash memory card, or can be doneusing infrared or radio network link, among others. The sensor can alsoinclude an indoor positioning system or alternatively a global positionsystem (GPS) receiver that relays the position and ambulatory patternsof the patient to the server 20 for mobility tracking.

In one embodiment, the sensors for monitoring vital signs are enclosedin a wrist-watch sized case supported on a wrist band. The sensors canbe attached to the back of the case. In another embodiment, EKG/ECGcontact points are positioned on the back of the wrist-watch case. Inyet another embodiment that provides continuous, beat-to-beat wristarterial pulse rate measurements, a pressure sensor is housed in acasing with a ‘free-floating’ plunger as the sensor applanates theradial artery. A strap provides a constant force for effectiveapplanation and ensuring the position of the sensor housing to remainconstant after any wrist movements. The change in the electrical signalsdue to change in pressure is detected as a result of the piezoresistivenature of the sensor are then analyzed to arrive at various arterialpressure, systolic pressure, diastolic pressure, time indices, and otherblood pressure parameters.

An embodiment provides a system and a method for renderingaugmented/virtual reality content and enabling users to modify theaugmented reality content. The system may include one or more imagecapturing devices through which data from the instant surrounding of theuser may be captured. Further, the system may communicate with one ormore multimedia content servers to access files from the multimediacontent servers. Such files may be stored in a database within thesystem. Examples of multimedia files may include images, text and iconsor moving content such as video clips, among others. The system mayrender augmented reality content to be displayed to the user byintegrating the data captured through the image capturing device anddata retrieved from the multimedia servers in the database. The systemmay include one or more sensors through which input may be provided to aprocessor. The input may for example include data corresponding totactile data, gestures data, movement and positional data of the user,among others. Semantics corresponding to such input may be stored in agesture recognition database. The system may further determine one ormore outcomes based on the input received through the sensors. Theoutcomes corresponding to the input may be stored in the gesturerecognition database, which is accessible to the processor. One or moreobjects of the augmented reality content may be altered by applying theoutcomes based on the input to the content that is presented to theuser. The augmented reality content may be presented on anaugmented/virtual reality display device which may be integrated withthe system.

Alternatively, the virtual/augmented reality content may be projected onsurfaces such as for example, walls, tables, floors and ceilings, amongothers. The virtual reality content may be displayed either in twodimensional or three dimensional formats. A rendering module may renderthe content to be displayed such that, the user may experience the eventoccurring in a three-dimensional space and interact with the contents ofthe event.

Another embodiment provides a system for enabling a plurality of usersto participate in an activity and communicate in virtual reality. Thesystem may be implemented in a plurality of scenarios where the user ofthe system, while being engaged in an activity, may be willing toexperience the virtual presence of other users, taking part in the sameactivity, while the activity is in progress. For example, the system maybe used in a scenario when the user is performing yoga at home. The usermay be willing to experience the virtual presence of one or more of hisfriends performing yoga beside him. The system may be configured torender virtual content showing virtual images or videos of one or moreother users who may or may not be performing yoga. The users may be ableto communicate with one another through voice or text or both voice andtext. The system may be used in all possible scenarios where virtualinteraction may be desired by the user with his/her family, friends orany person whom the user may be interested in interacting virtually. Oneor more of the other users may be connected to the user on one or moresocial networking platforms. The system may retrieve informationcorresponding to the other users, who may be connected to the user onone or more social networking platforms by accessing the user's profile.The system may be configured to render a virtual reality environmentbased on the type of activity the user may be engaged in. The processor,input units, database, image capturing device may be embedded within theaugmented/virtual reality (AR/VR) devices. Each user participating in anactivity in virtual reality with one another may interact through theirrespective AR/VR devices.

The database may include information corresponding to the user's profileas retrieved from one or more social networking platforms.Alternatively, the user may feed data corresponding to his profile inthe system, which may be stored in the database. The database maycommunicate with servers associated with one or more social networkingportals and retrieve the user's relationship information with otherusers on the portal. Profiles of a plurality of users with whom the usermay be connected may be stored in the database. Such information mayalso be fed into the system by the user and may be stored in thedatabase. The system may be configured to generate virtual content basedon the user's profile information and profiles of the plurality of usersstored in the database. The database may also store preconfiguredprofiles of users who may not be connected with the user. Such profilesmay include profiles of celebrities, animated characters or otherprofiles or personalities in whom the user may have shown interest. Theprocessor may be configured to access the database and generate contentbased on the user's preference and profile. The database may store a setof preconfigured or configurable rules that the processor may access todetermine the type of content to be rendered based on at least thepreference and profile of the user for whom the content is to bedisplayed.

Referring to the figures and more particularly to FIG. 3, an embodimentdiscloses a system 300 for displaying augmented/virtual reality contentto users and enables users to modify the augmented reality content. Thesystem 300 may include a processor 302 and the processor 302 may includea rendering module 304. The system 300 may include one or more inputunits 306, a database 308 and a gesture recognition database 310. Thesystem 300 may further include one or more image capturing devices 312.Further, the processor 302 may be configured to establish a connectionwith an AR device. The processor 302 may be embedded into the AR device.The processor 302 may be, for example, a graphics processing unit (GPU).

The AR device may be a device which may be wearable by the user like agoggle or it may be a head mounted device. The AR device may house aprojector comprising of lenses that beams images onto the user's eyescreating an optical signal on the retina. The AR goggle may be thedisplay device. The augmented reality content may be projected onto theAR display device. Alternatively, the AR device may project content ontodisplay surfaces. This may be the case when the AR device is a headmounted device.

The system 300 may communicate with one or more multimedia contentservers. Data from the multimedia content servers may be accessible tothe processor 302. The multimedia content server and the system 300 maycommunicate with each other using a network module. The network modulemay be a mobile network, internet or a local area network, among others.The files/data received from the multimedia content servers may bestored in the database 308. The database 308 may be within the processor302. Alternatively, the database 308 may not be within the processor 302but data stored in the database 308 may be accessible to the processor302.

In an embodiment, the multimedia content may be streamed from themultimedia server to the database 308. In another embodiment, the system300 may download the multimedia content from the multimedia server andstore the content in the database 308, thereby enabling the processor302 to utilize the multimedia content even when it is not connected tothe multimedia server.

Referring to FIG. 4, an embodiment discloses a method of renderingcontent to be displayed to the user, in accordance with an embodiment.At step 402, the image capturing device 312 may capture images of theobjects within the field of view of the image capturing device 312. Thefield of view may include the instant surrounding of the user. Theimage-capturing device 312 may be a camera or other image sensors andmay capture images from the instant surrounding within its field ofview. At step 404, the captured images is communicated with the database308, which can be accessed by the processor 302. At step 406, theprocessor 302 may access the images stored in the database 308. At step408, the rendering module 304 of the processor 302 may render the imagesinto two or three-dimensional content by converting the images receivedfrom the database into virtual images depicting the images from theinstant surrounding of the physical world. The images may be renderedsuch that the user may see the images in either two or three dimensionalformats. At step 410, the rendered content may be communicated to the ARdevice to be displayed to the user. The AR device may project thevirtual content on the AR display device or on one or more displaysurfaces. This virtual content may be a portion of the entire contentsuch as, the background scenery. The system 300 may further integratesimulated virtual images with the images depicting the instantsurrounding and a combined virtual content may be rendered for displayto the user. The user may be provided an option to choose content to beintegrated with the images of the instant surrounding.

The processor 302 may generate virtual images by accessing themultimedia content. In an embodiment, the AR device may simulate datafrom the multimedia content and generate images of virtual objects. Suchvirtual images may be generated based on selection by the user. Virtualcontent may be generated by integrating the virtual images with theimages of the surrounding by simulating the data in time, frequency andspace.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating the method of rendering virtualreality content to be displayed to the user, based on the input providedby the user, in accordance with an embodiment. At step 502, the system300 may receive input from the user. Such input may be informationcorresponding to what type of content the user is interested in viewing.The input may be provided through a physical keypad, which may beconnected to the system 300 or a virtual keypad that the system 300provides to the user. Alternatively, such input may also be provided bythe user by touching or tapping options being provided to the user on adisplay interface. Such input may also be provided through voice. Atstep 504, the input received at the previous step may be communicated tothe processor 302. At step 506, the processor 302 may assess the input.At step 508, the processor 302 may retrieve content based on the input.The content may be retrieved by accessing the multimedia servers or thedatabase 308. At step 510, the retrieved content may be integrated withthe images received from the image-capturing device 312. For thispurpose, the processor 302 may determine interest points, defineinterest operators and construct an optical flow of the images of theinstant environment captured through the image capturing device 312. Theinstant surrounding's pixel coordinates may be determined from the dataobtained by processing the image. The processor 302, upon receivinginput from users about the type or theme of the content to be rendered,may generate the image and, subsequently, determine the interest points,define interest operators and construct an optical flow of the virtualimages that may be retrieved from the multimedia content. At step 512,the rendering module 304 of the processor 302 may render the integratedcontent into two or three dimensional content by integrating the contentdepicting the images from the physical world. At step 514, the renderedcontent may be communicated to the AR device to be displayed to theuser. The AR device may display the content on the AR display device ora surface such as a wall, floor, table and ceilings, among others. Thedisplay surface may depend on the type of AR device. For example, if theAR device is a device worn like an eyewear, the display may be on the ARdevice's display surface. If the AR device is a head mounted device,then the display surface may be one or more of the display surfacesmentioned above. The processor 302 may be a self learning artificiallyintelligent processor to determine the type of content to be presentedto the user. The processor 302 may learn from previous activities orselections made by the user and take into consideration such informationwhile generating the content including the virtual images to beintegrated with the images of the surroundings.

The sensors may receive inputs corresponding to parameters indicating aset of defined user characteristics. Characteristics may, for example,include head movement speed, head movement acceleration, and/orrelationship between head movement and eye movement (e.g., ratio of oneto the other), limb movement speed. The characteristics may even includeindications of the tendency of a user to pay attention to certainvirtual objects such as virtual object type (e.g., text, charts),movement of a virtual object (e.g., large shifts from image to image,fast or rapid movement, direction of movement), and characteristics ofthe virtual object (e.g., color, brightness, size), among others.

The user's eye and head movements and changes in position may beconstantly monitored for displaying virtual content. A sensor, such as aposition sensor may be integrated in the AR device which may beconfigured to monitor the viewer's (user) head and eye positions. Theposition information may be constantly communicated to the processor 302and stored in the database 308. The processor 302 may determine thedirection of light entering into the eye depending on the eye position.The line of sight may also be determined based on the eye position. Thevirtual content may be displayed to the user, based on the line of sightof the user.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating the method of displaying virtualreality content to the user, in accordance with an embodiment. At step602, the user's eye position may be constantly monitored by theaugmented reality device. At step 604, the information relating to theeye position may be constantly communicated to the processor 302. Suchinformation may include how fast the eye movement changes, the positionof the eye for each change and the line of sight, among others. Suchinformation may be stored in the database 308 and retrieved by theprocessor 302 to determine the instantaneous velocity at which the eyemay move. At step 606, the processor 302 may determine the correspondingdirection of projection of light into the eye depending on the eyeposition. The determined direction of projection of light into the eyedepending on the eye position may be stored in the database 308 for theprocessor 302 to retrieve in future. At step 608, the rendering module304 of the processor 302 may carry out rendering of content into two orthree-dimensional formats. At step 610, the processor 302 maycommunicate the rendered content, along with instructions of directionof projection of light to the AR device. At step 612, the AR device mayreceive the content along with instructions related to the direction ofprojection of light and thereafter project the content into the eye ofthe user such that, the user sees the content in two orthree-dimensional formats. The processor 302 may further determine thevelocity at which frames of images may be rendered based on the user'seye position. The processor 302 may estimate an instantaneous velocityat which the eye position changes and the information relating to thevelocity may be communicated to the rendering module 304, such thatimages may be presented as continuous scene according to change inposition of the eye.

Referring to FIG. 7, a method of displaying virtual reality content tothe user, such that the content is clearly visible to the user, isillustrated. At step 702, the AR device may determine the intensity oflight of the instant surrounding in the user's line of sight. At step704, the AR device may communicate the information relating to theintensity of light to the processor 302. Such information may includeinformation corresponding to ambient lighting of the environment,brightness of the objects and foreground and background lighting, amongothers. At step 706, the processor 302 may receive the information anddetermines the intensity of light to be projected into the user's eyes,such that, the content is clearly visible to the user. For example, theprocessor 302 may determine the intensity of light to be projected intothe user's eye such that the user is clearly able to view an image ofthe surrounding, depending on the amount of brightness or darkness ofthe instant surrounding. The processor 302 may define areas ofbrightness and darkness in a scene and accordingly execute imagecorrection algorithms and apply it on the images to be rendered. At step708, the rendering module 304 of the processor 302 may render thecontent to be displayed to the user based on the determination ofintensity of light by the processor 302. At step 710, the content may becommunicated to the AR device, to be displayed to the user such that,the content is clearly visible to the user.

One or more sensors may receive input such as, tactile and gestureinput, data indicating pressure and force vectors, applied through theuser's limbs, among others. In an embodiment, the processor 302 mayfurther receive voice data from the one or more sensors such as amicrophone. This may be voice input provided by the user, wherein thevoice input may correspond to a command. The processor 302 may beconfigured to receive input from the sensors and synthesize the inputand derive the visual output or outcome based on the input. The derivedvisual output may be applied to the virtual images to alter one or moreparameters (location, size etc) of the objects in the image. Forexample, in a car racing game, the input may correspond to pitch, yaw orroll data of a user's limbs. The user may change the position of thehands to steer a vehicle in the game, thereby altering the pitch, yaw orroll values of the hands. The processor 302 may determine the outcomesof the pitch, yaw and roll data and their effect on the content. Theoutcome, for example, may be, steering the vehicle to the left or right,or increasing or decreasing the speed of the vehicle.

In an embodiment, the gesture recognition database 310 may storegestures along with the semantics of each gesture received through thesensors. The semantics of the gestures may be predefined and stored inthe gesture recognition database 310. The gesture recognition database310 may also store outcomes of such input. The outcomes may indicate oneor more physical actions carried by the user which may be applied to thevirtual content to modify or alter parameters of the content. Forexample, if the user were to provide a gesture indicating expanding orzooming a particular object which is displayed to the user, the outcomewould be zooming of the object. The gesture can be the action of zoomingwith his fingers. The system 300 may receive the input and accesses thegesture recognition database 310 to determine the outcome of the gestureinput. The rendering module 304 may receive the outcome of the gestureinput and render it in real time to the virtual content in order toalter details of the content. The gesture inputs may for example imply,resizing, adding, deleting, and shifting one or more items or objects ofthe content from one location to another. Gesture input may not only belimited to gestures made with fingers or hand, such input may alsoinclude tactile input, voice input and movement data of the user, amongothers.

FIGS. 8A-8B is a flowchart illustrating the method of receiving gestureinput from the user and thereafter rendering content to be displayed tothe user, based on the gesture input, in accordance with an embodiment.At step 802, rendered content may be displayed to user. This renderedcontent may include the image of the instant surrounding combined withthe images of virtual objects. At step 804, user input may be providedin form of gestures. At step 806, sensors and image or sound capturingdevice may capture the gesture. The image-capturing device 312 may bethe image-capturing device that may be implemented to capture gestures.Sound may be captured through one or more microphones. These devices maybe the parts of the input unit 306. These devices may be integrated intothe system 300 or may be peripheral devices connected to the system 300.Such devices may be detachable from the system 300. At step 808, theinput gesture may be communicated to the processor 302. The processor302 may communicate with the gesture recognition database 310 to findthe semantics of such input and derive an outcome corresponding to theinput. At step 810, the processor 302 may access the gesture recognitiondatabase 310 to determine corresponding outcome to the gesture input. Atstep 812, the processor 302 may find the corresponding outcome to thegesture input. If the processor 302 is able to find the outcomecorresponding to the gesture input, then at step 814, the outcomecorresponding to the gesture input may be communicated to the processor302. If the processor 302 is not able to find the outcome correspondingto the gesture input at step 812, then at step 816, the user may beprovided an option to provide an outcome corresponding gesture whichwill be stored in the gesture recognition database 310. The user mayprovide outcome corresponding to the gestures through virtual keypadsthat may be displayed to the user. The user may also provide such inputthrough a physical keypad connected to the system 300. At step 818, therendering module 304 of the processor 302 may render the outcome of theinput gesture into the two or three dimensional augmented realitycontent. At step 820, the rendered content may be communicated to the ARdevice to be displayed to the user. The outcome of the gestures may beused to alter, edit, add or delete one or more content in the imagesthat are presented as the augmented reality content. The correspondingoutcome may define one or more physical activities performed by the usersuch as, pointing at some object, moving an object, scrolling, deletingan object, adding objects, walking in virtual reality and speaking,among others. Some or all of the virtual reality content may get alteredbased on the input provided by the user.

As an example, the rendering module 304 may render the image of adesktop in either 2 dimensional or 3 dimensional form. The user may haveset a password for one particular file on the actual desktop. The usermay be currently viewing the desktop in virtual reality and the passwordprotected file needs to be unlocked. The user may use the virtual keypadto enter input mapping to the password which may result in unlocking thefile on the virtual as well as actual desktop. In another example, theuser may be enabled to unlock a programme or show on a television invirtual reality. The system 300 may also enable locking and unlocking ofphysical or mechanical locks to virtual doors, gates and cars, amongothers. For example, a door may be rendered in virtual reality and theuser may be required to walk through the door which is locked using amechanical lock. The user may make gestures in space. The gesture may becommunicated to the processor 302 to determine the outcome that mayimply an unlocking action. The outcome may be rendered to the virtualreality content, thereby allowing the user to unlock the door.

In another example, the system 300 may display a virtual desktop. Thefiles in the desktop may be arranged and displayed on the left side ofthe desktop. The user may require moving a file from the left hand sideof the virtual desktop to the right hand side or to the taskbar of thevirtual desktop. The user may use the physical or virtual keypad toenter inputs to the content that may be used to alter the file locationon the virtual desktop. Alternatively, user may provide a gestureindicating moving the file from the left hand side to the right handside. The gesture input may be communicated to the processor 302 throughthe motion sensors. The processor 302 may determine the outcome of thegesture and communicate the implication of the outcome to the renderingmodule 304. The rendering module 304 may render the implication anddisplay the change in the virtual content by moving the file from theoriginal position to the desired position.

In yet another example, the user may be enabled to alter content in avirtual football game. The user may be required to run and kick the ballby moving his feet in space to score goals. Pressure sensors maycommunicate the pressure and force applied by the user's feet. The usermay be required to provide an input indicating forwarding the ball toanother player. The motion, force and pressure vectors may be taken intoaccount to determine the direction and force at which the ball may move.The output data corresponding to movements of the user's limbs may berendered on the display. Whether a goal is being scored or whether theuser has made a successful pass to another player may be rendered on thevirtual reality content display based on the user's inputs.

In an alternate embodiment, the processor 302 may be configured toreceive input from the virtual or physical keypad to alter or modify oneor more details or objects of the virtual reality content.

FIG. 9 is an illustration of the virtual reality content being alteredby the outcome of a gesture input, in accordance with an embodiment. Thevirtual content is being displayed to the user. The user may wish toview a particular object in the content by expanding the dimensions ofthe virtual object. The user may provide gesture with his fingers, whichmay correspond to expand. The portion of the content may be altered byrendering the outcome of the corresponding gesture.

In an embodiment, the depth of field of the user's eye may be calculatedbased on the eye movement and positions. The rendering module 304 may beconfigured to render the content into one or more resolutions to enablehighlighting certain aspects of the content compared to other aspects ofthe content. For example, the content in the foreground may be of higherresolution compared to the content in the background. This may enablethe user to have a more realistic view of the content, wherein objectsnearer to the user are more pronounced in the visibility compared toobjects which are farther from the user. The measure of depth of fieldmay and the content being rendered based on the measurement may beapplicable in enabling a user to view content in either two or threedimensional formats.

In an embodiment, the field of view of the user's eye may also becalculated based on the eye movement and positions. The field of viewmay be used to determine the extent to which the user may view theinstant surrounding at any given instant.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating the method of displaying virtualreality content to the user considering the field of view and depth offield of the user, in accordance with an embodiment. At step 902, the ARdevice may constantly track the eye movement of the user. At step 904,the information related to the eye movement of the user may beconstantly communicated to the processor 302. Such information mayinclude how fast or slow the user' eye may move and change its positionand line of sight, among others. Upon receiving the information relatedto the eye movement of the user, at step 906, the processor 302 maydetermine the field of view and depth of field of the user's eye. Atstep 908, the rendering module 304 of the processor 302 may render thecontent into two or three-dimensional formats taking into considerationfield of view and depth of field of the user. At step 910, the renderedcontent may be communicated to the AR device to be displayed to theuser. The user's head position may be constantly changing and the eyeposition may change relative to the movement of the head. The field ofview of the user's eye may be calculated based on the line of sight andthe position of the eye. Additionally, the horizontal and vertical fieldof view of the image-capturing device 312 or the focal length of theimage-capturing device 312 may be measured to calculate the field ofview of the user's eye.

Further, the rendering module 304 of the processor 302 may render thevirtual reality content based on the user's position and orientation.The rendering module 304 may receive from the processor 302 datacorresponding to the user's position and orientation. The processor mayinclude pre-configured set of rules pertaining to the user's preferencesof the format of display based on the user's position and orientation.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating the method of rendering virtualreality content based on the display surface, in accordance with anembodiment. At step 1002, the user's position and orientationinformation may be received through the sensors. At step 1004, theuser's position and orientation information may be communicated to theprocessor 302. Such information may include information corresponding toa user's position such as sitting, standing, walking and lying in ahorizontal position, among others. At step 1006, the processor 302determines the display surface relative to the user's position andorientation. At step 1008, the processor 302 may communicate theinformation relating to the display surface to the rendering module 304along with the preferable formats of display such as two orthree-dimensional formats. At step 1010, the rendered content may becommunicated to the AR device for display along with the formats thecontent to be displayed.

Displays may be presented to the user based on the user's position andorientation, in accordance with an embodiment. As an example, the usermay be presented a holographic display interface based on the positionand orientation. Users may be provided options to choose interfacesbased on preference, location and orientation, among others. Forexample, one interface could be displayed while the user is working ortaking part in a conference or event, another interface could bedisplayed while the user is participating in a leisurely activity suchas a game. Furthermore, another interface could be displayed while theuser is sitting on a couch and watching a movie. Each of these displayinterfaces may be different from one another. Each of these displayinterfaces may be configured to display virtual reality content based onthe user's position data, movement data, orientation of head and eyesand orientation of limbs, among others.

Further, the display interfaces may be changed for the user based on thetheme of the content being displayed. For example, when the user iswatching a movie on Netflix, the display interface may be different fromthe display interface that is presented while the user is watchingsports on ESPN. For example, while watching ESPN posters of players oradvertisements may be rendered for display on blank walls.

The processor 302 may be a self learning artificially intelligentprocessor to determine the format of display to be presented, based onthe user's position and orientation. Upon rendering the content based onthe user's position and orientation, the virtual reality content may becommunicated to the VR device to be displayed on the display surface. Asan example, if the user is sitting on a couch and the head is tiltedtowards the right, the display may also be tilted relative to theposition of the head. Further, relative to the overall orientation ofthe user's body, the display surface may be selected by the system 300,such as, wall, ceiling and floor, among others. Furthermore, the displaymay be a curved display of a straight display. The virtual realitycontent may be rendered to be displayed on curved display surfaces. Thevirtual reality content or at least a portion of the content may beremapped such that the virtual reality content may be displayed oncurved display surfaces. The rendering module 304 may remap the virtualreality content and render the content to be displayed on curvedsurfaces.

The rendering module 304 may render two dimensional or three dimensionalvisual content for display based on the user's position and orientationdata. The virtual reality content may, as an example, also be displayedor projected in space as holographic display.

Referring to FIG. 12, in another embodiment the system 300 may enable aplurality of users to participate in an activity and communicate, invirtual reality. The system 300 may include a communication module 1202.The system 300 may be configured to communicate with one or more remoteservers 1204 via the communication module 1202. The system 300 may belocated on a server which may not be located on the VR device and thesystem 300 may be configured to communicate with the VR device.Alternatively, the system 300 may be located on the VR device. The VRdevice may project the virtual content based on the instructionsreceived from the processor 302. The virtual content may be images ofother users or videos of other users. The system 300 may include one ormore image capturing devices. The rendering module 304 may be configuredto render virtual content in one or more formats upon receivinginstruction from the processor 302.

In an embodiment, the system 300 may be configured to communicate withone or more servers 1204 to retrieve user information. The communicationmodule 1202 may enable the system 300 to communicate with the servers1204. The communication module 1202 may also enable communication ofdata from the processor 302 to the AR device. The processor 302 may beconfigured to store information retrieved from the server 1204 in thedatabase 308. The stored information may be information corresponding tothe user's profile, relationship information with other users on one ormore social networking platforms and one or more activities the user maybe performing, among others. Based on the data stored, the processor 302may generate lists of preconfigured themes that may represent theactivities of the user. The user may be provided an option to select oneor more themes depending on the type of the activity, the user may beindulged in. Such lists may be provided to the user on a virtualinterface such that the user may select one or more options from thelists.

FIG. 13A is a flowchart illustrating the method of rendering virtualcontent based on the theme or the type of activity the user may beperforming, in accordance with an embodiment. At step 1302, theprocessor 302 may communicate with one or more remote servers 1204 toretrieve information corresponding to the user. At step 1304, theprocessor 302 may store in the database 308, information or datacorresponding to one or more activities that the user may perform. Atstep 1306, the processor 302 may generate a plurality of lists ofpreconfigured themes that may be based on the activities. At step 1308,the processor 302 may enable the user to select one or more options fromamong the lists of themes, which may be based on the type of activitythe user may be involved in. At step 1310, the processor 302 may rendervirtual content based on the theme or type of activity selected by thefirst user.

Further, a set of machine learning algorithms may enable the processor302 to learn from the previous choices of theme for an activity selectedby the user and thereby automatically select themes based on theactivity of the user. Machine learning algorithms may be stored in thedatabase 308 and accessed by the processor 302. Upon selecting thetheme, content may be rendered into virtual reality. Further, the usermay be required to provide necessary additional information such thatthe processor 302 may be able to select the theme based on inputprovided by the user. Such content may correspond to sceneries that maybe able to provide the user experience of the activity the user may beparticipating in.

FIG. 13B is another flowchart illustrating the method of renderingvirtual content to the user based on the theme or the type of activitythe user may be performing, in accordance with an embodiment. At step1312, the processor 302 may communicate with one or more remote servers1204 to retrieve information corresponding to the user. At step 1314,the processor 302 may learn from the previous activities of the user,choice of themes by the user, relationships, preferences, hobbies, workschedule among other information and store the information in thedatabase 308. At step 1316, the processor 302 may determine the type ofactivity the user may be performing. At step 1318, the processor 302 maydetermine the type of content that has to be rendered based on thedetermination of the activity. At step 1320, the processor 302 mayrender at least a portion of the virtual content based on the type ofactivity. Such virtual content rendered at this step may be only aportion of the entire content, such as, for example, the background andscenery that may form the background, among others. Such content mayalso include one or more other participant's virtual model. At step1322, whether the virtual content matches the theme of activity thefirst user may be performing, may be determined. At step 1324, if thevirtual content does not match the theme of activity which the user maybe performing, then the processor 302 may request additional informationfrom the user. Based on the received additional information, theprocessor 302 may, at step 1326, render virtual content using the userprovided information suitable to the theme of activity. At step 1322, ifthe virtual content matches the theme of the activity, then at step1328, the processor 302 may render virtual images of one or more otherparticipants whom the user wishes to be participants in the activity.The selection of other participants in the activity may also be based onthe user's profile information. The processor 302 may be configured toexecute step 1328 after step 1326. The virtual images of one or more ofthe user's friends or family members whom the user may be willing toparticipate with depends on the information corresponding to the user'sprofile. For example, the user may wish to perform yoga with his familymembers. The processor 302 may receive this information from the userand subsequently may provide or render the virtual images of one or morefamily members of the user. At step 1330, whether the virtual imagescorrespond to the participants whom the user may be willing toparticipate with, may be determined. If the virtual images do notcorrespond to the participants whom the user may be willing toparticipate with, then the processor 302, at step 1332, may request forinput from the user to modify or alter the content based on the inputprovided by the user. At step 1334, the processor 302 may rendermodified virtual content based on the input received from the user. Ifthe virtual figures correspond to the users whom the user may be willingto participate with, then, at step 1336, the processor 302 may enablethe user to perform the desired activity and interact with one or moreparticipants during the activity. Further, the processor 302 may also beconfigured to render images of other participants, who may not engage inthe activity. The processor 302 may only display images of participantswho may not engage in the activity. The processor 302 may be configuredto execute step 1336 after step 1334.

In an embodiment, the content that may form the scenery may be displayedon one or more display interfaces. Such content may be in two or threedimensional format based on one or more factors, such as, the type ofcontent, type of display interface and user's preference among others.The display interfaces may be, for example, a wall, floor and ceilingamong others. The AR device may be configured to project the renderedimages onto the display interface.

FIGS. 14A to 14C illustrate exemplary scenarios wherein the system 300may be implemented, in accordance with an embodiment. In an example andreferring to FIG. 14A, the system 300 may be configured to rendervirtual content, showing the virtual presence of one or moreparticipants to a user while the user is at home preparing for a yogasession. The user may be wearing his/her AR device. The system 300 mayrender virtual content displaying the virtual images of one or moreparticipants whom the user may or may not know in person. The system 300may also allow the one or more participants to communicate with the userthrough the communication module 1202 during the session through voiceor through texts or both voice and text. The system 300 may render thevirtual content such that the user may experience an environment wherethe user is performing yoga with the plurality of other participants.The system 300 may also render the virtual image of an instructor whomthe user may or may not know in person. The system 300 may furtherrender suitable background scenery of a meadow or a meditation hall,among other backgrounds.

In a second exemplary scenario and referring to FIG. 14B, the system 300may be implemented in a scenario to replace business travel by virtualteleconferences where participants may experience the feeling ofphysically being present at the location, interacting with theirco-workers or clients, even though they may not be physically present atthe location. The participants who may be wearing the VR devices may beprovided access to other participants who may be participating in theconference virtually. However, the participants participating virtuallymay be able to see all the participants, who are physically present atthe conference and who are virtually participating in the conference.Similarly, the participants, who are physically present at theconference, may be able to see all the virtual participants. This can beenabled by providing a video camera at the conference, which may recordthe events at the conference as well as images and videos of theparticipants of the conference. One or more of the participants may beenabled to take control of the session. The participant(s) who may betaking control of the session may be able to initiate the session andallow other participants to provide data to be displayed as virtualcontent, while the session is in progress. The data provided by theparticipants may be data related to the teleconference.

In a third exemplary scenario and referring to FIG. 14C, the system 300may be implemented in a scenario where the user may be willing to dineat home as well as feel the presence of one or more of his friends orfamily members beside him. The processor 302 may render virtual contentby receiving input from the user. The processor 302 displays thebackground as the scenery of a restaurant. The virtual contentrepresenting the scenery of a restaurant may be displayed to the user.The user may be enabled to select one or more friends and family memberswhose presence the user wishes to feel or whom the user wishes to haveas participants while dining The processor 302 may render the virtualimages of those people selected by the user. The processor 302 mayrender the virtual image of his/her friends on a display interface suchas holographic display interface. The user may be enabled to communicatewith his friends while dining, through the communication module 1202.

In an embodiment, and referring to the above examples, the processor 302may, retrieve from the database 308, information corresponding to theuser's social networking profile and the user's relationship informationwith other users on the social networking platform. The profiles of oneor more users with whom the user may be connected on the socialnetworking platform may be retrieved and stored in the database 308. Theprocessor 302 may generate the virtual content based on the informationretrieved. The processor 302 may further instruct the VR device todisplay virtual models of one or more of the user's friends whoseprofiles may be stored in the database 308.

Alternatively or additionally, the system 300 may be configured toreceive inputs from the user wherein the input may include informationcorresponding to the user. Such information may include a user's name,place of work, contact details, home address, list of friends of theuser and their contact information, hobbies, activities the user may beinvolved in and recent activities the user was engaged in and dailyactivity schedule, among other information. Such information can also befed to the system 100 by the user, such as, for example, by filling aquestionnaire and may be stored in the database 308. The user may alsoprovide information corresponding to his/her friends and family memberssuch as, place of work, hobbies, activities they may like doing andrecent activities they were engaged in and daily activity schedule amongother such information.

In an embodiment, the processor 302 may be configured to understand theuser's interest, preferences and priorities among others based on theinformation corresponding to the user's profile. The processor 302 mayalso be configured to learn what activity the user may be performing ata particular time of the day, or on any particular day, based on theuser's daily activities and previous activities. Such information may bestored in the database 308 and retrieved from the same whenevernecessary. Based on the learning, the processor 302 may generate thevirtual content by retrieving the user's profile information from thedatabase 308.

FIG. 14F shows an exemplary embodiment of FIG. 1B, with selectivelycontrollable front transmission and reflection unit 100 to convertedbetween AR and VR, or variations in between for a rich visualenvironment. To provide full 360 degree view, the embodiment alsoprovides a rear view mirror on both sides of the eye to provide completeselectivity of rear view.

FIG. 14G shows in more detail the front view system with controllabletransmission and reflection unit 100. FIG. 14G shows the multiple layersin a multi-layered structure making up an exemplary window that can turnoff the outside view for VR in the reflection mode, or can allow view ofthe outside world for AR in the transmission mode. In this structure,the electrically active optical layer 100 is a nematic liquid crystalthin film of about 4 to 25 microns in thickness. The nematic liquidcrystal materials (commonly used for thin film transistor driven liquidcrystal displays and readily purchased from companies such as Merck KGaAof Germany or Chisso Corporation of Japan) can be used as anelectrically active optical layer in this structure. The electricallyactive optical layer 100 is aligned by treated surface layers 101 whichcan be rubbed polyimides such as SE610 from Nissan Chemicals. Theelectrical stimulus is applied to the electrically active optical layer100 via optically transparent, conductive Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) layers102, which are directly deposited on substrates 103. Such a standardglass substrate is the ITO coated Corning 1737F borosilicate glass fromCorning, Inc. The ITO layer 102 may cover the entire substrate 103, ormay be pixellated so that different regions of the window structure maybe controlled in opacity and reflectance independently. A desirablesubstrate in some instances could be an ITO coated plastic substratethat is flexible, where the assembled window structure will be able toassume curved shapes. Assembled structures 103, 102, 101, and 100 aregenerally commercially available, if the substrates 103 are glass, froma large number of companies including, for example, Shenzhen ShenhuiTechnology Co., Ltd. of China, Samsung Electronics of South Korea, andChunghwa Picture Tubes, LTD of Taiwan.

The next layer in one direction is an absorptive polarizer 105A. Thenext layer in the other direction is a reflective polarizer 104.Absorptive polarizer 105B can be pre-assembled to reflective polarizer104 such that the polarized light transmission direction of thereflective polarizer 104 is parallel to that of the absorptive polarizer105B. If the reflective polarizer 104 is linear, it reflects onepolarization while transmits the orthogonal polarization of lightincident on it. On the other hand, the absorptive polarizer 105, iflinear, absorbs one polarization while transmitting the orthogonalpolarization of light incident on it. Absorptive polarizers withpressure sensitive adhesive layers are available from companies such asSanritz Corporation of Japan. Alternatively, polarizers preassembledwith a compensation film, such as those wide viewing angle absorptivepolarizers from Sanritz Corporation, are particularly attractive inelectrooptic glazing applications to provide high contrast tintedwindows even for obliquely incident light. Linear reflective polarizersare becoming available relatively recently, including Dual BrightnessEnhancement Films (DBEF) with adhesive layer (DBEF-a) from 3MCorporation, and wire grid based polarizers from Moxtek, Inc.

The next layers are transparent polymer layers 106 where the layersserve multiple purposes including shock absorption, UV blocking, indexmatching, and anti-glass shattering. A common polymer layer is that ofpolyvinyl butyrate from Solutia, Inc. The next layers are protectivesubstrates 107, where glass used for conventional window glass can beused and is laminated on the interior structures 106 through 100 usingeither a pressure treatment process or heat curing process, depending onadhesive films used in the stack. Alternatively, treated glass, such asthose from DENGLAS Technologies, LLC, offers advantages of increasedtransmission, reflection, and antiglare when used as protectivesubstrates 107, where the glass substrates are coated with broadbandantireflection coatings. Yet another alternative is to laminateantireflection polymer films 108, such as those from Toppan Printing Co.Ltd of Japan, on uncoated glass of 106 to reduce glare and to increasetransmission of the window stack. Furthermore, UV absorbing or rejectingfilm 109, such as the Llumar series from CPFilms, Inc. is laminated onthe stack to reduce the amount of UV from ambient or from Sunlight toenter into the building and to reduce potential damage to theelectrically active optical layer 100 or other polymer based componentsin the window structure.

FIG. 14H illustrates the backview AR/VR module 170 with anelectrochromic mirror element 115a in mirror assembly 170.Electrochromic mirror element 115a has a front transparent element 112having a front surface 112 a and a rear surface 112 b, and a rearelement 114 having a front surface 114 a and a rear surface 114 b. Forclarity of description of such a structure, the following designationswill be used hereinafter. The front surface 112 a of the front glasselement will be referred to as the first surface, and the back surface112 b of the front glass element as the second surface. The frontsurface 114 a of the rear glass element will be referred to as the thirdsurface, and the back surface 114 b of the rear glass element as thefourth surface. A chamber 125 is defined by a layer of transparentconductor 128 (carried on second surface 112 b), an electrode 120(disposed on third surface 114 a), and an inner circumferential wall 132of sealing member 116. An electrochromic medium 126 is contained withinchamber 125.

As broadly used and described herein, the reference to an electrode orlayer as being “carried” on a surface of an element, refers to bothelectrodes or layers that are disposed directly on the surface of anelement or disposed on another coating, layer or layers that aredisposed directly on the surface of the element.

Front transparent element 112 may be any material which is transparentand has sufficient strength to be able to operate in the conditions,e.g., varying temperatures and pressures, commonly found in theautomotive environment. Front element 112 may comprise any type ofborosilicate glass, soda lime glass, float glass, or any other material,such as, for example, a polymer or plastic, that is transparent in thevisible region of the electromagnetic spectrum. Front element 112 ispreferably a sheet of glass. The rear element 114 should meet theoperational conditions outlined above, except that it does not need tobe transparent in all applications, and therefore may comprise polymers,metals, glass, ceramics, and preferably is a sheet of glass.

The coatings of the third surface 114 a are sealably bonded to thecoatings on the second surface 112 b in a spaced-apart and parallelrelationship by a seal member 116 disposed near the outer perimeter ofboth second surface 112 b and third surface 114 a. Seal member 116 maybe any material that is capable of adhesively bonding the coatings onthe second surface 112 b to the coatings on the third surface 114 a toseal the perimeter such that electrochromic material 126 does not leakfrom chamber 125. Optionally, the layer of transparent conductivecoating 128 and the layer of reflector/electrode 120 may be removed overa portion where the seal member is disposed (not the entire portion,otherwise the drive potential could not be applied to the two coatings).In such a case, seal member 116 should bond well to glass.

According to one of the above embodiments, the present invention maygenerally include a view mirror assembly with a variable reflectancemirror element and a projector, display electronic device positionedbehind the mirror element so as to transmit or receive light through themirror element. Unlike prior rearview variable reflectance mirrorelements, however, the mirror element may utilize a polarized reflectorthat transmits light having a first polarization, while reflecting lighthaving a second polarization opposite the first polarization. Theelectronic device emits light or receives light having the firstpolarization such that the light passes very efficiently through themirror element with almost no loss. Approximately half of the ambientlight, on the other hand, is reflected so that the mirror element actsas an effective rearview mirror. The polarized reflector may function asone of the electrodes of the variable reflectance mirror element.

The reflective polarizer may be a “wire grid” type of polarizer thatreflects (specularly) one plane of light polarization and transmits theother. A display or other light source that emits polarized light wouldnot suffer a large drop in brightness if it is oriented such that itspolarized light is transmitted through the mirror element and notreflected. If a light source or light emitting display that does notemit polarized light is used behind a “wire polarizer” mirror element, aportion of the light is transmitted and a portion of the light isreflected. Both the transmitted and reflected light is polarized. Thepolarized reflected light could be de-polarized by reflective scatteringand part of that light will then be transmitted by the mirror element orthe plane of polarization of the light could be rotated 90 degrees andreflected back through the “wire grid” polarizer. This will enhance thedisplay brightness. Similar techniques could be used to utilize ambientlight that is transmitted through the wire grid polarizer into thedisplay/reflector assembly.

If a TFT LCD is used as a video display, and the display is orientedsuch that its polarized light is transmitted by the wire grid polarizer,almost 100 percent of the light it emits is transmitted and almost 50percent of ambient light is specularly reflected by the mirror. Theresult is a high brightness “display on demand” mirror where almost nodisplay brightness is lost yet the “mirror” is near 50 percentreflective to ambient light.

This “wire grid” polarizer/mirror and display assembly could be used “asis” in a non-dimming rearview mirror assembly or it could be laminatedto or attached to an electro-optic dimming window (LCD or electrochromicelement) to make a dimming “wire grid” polarizer/mirror and displayassembly with variable reflectance. One advantage of using such anelectro-optic element in front of the reflective polarizer is that theelectro-optic element may be made less transmissive when the display isturned on. The ambient light striking the mirror element passes throughthe electro-optic element twice while the light from the display orlight source only passes through once. Thus, by dimming theelectro-optic element when the display is on, twice as much of theambient light is absorbed as the light from the display or light sourcethereby increasing the relative contrast ratio of the display duringhigh brightness ambient conditions.

A typical “wire grid” polarizer available from Moxtek (ProFlux™ type) ismade by coating glass with a reflective aluminum layer. This aluminumlayer is then patterned into straight lines and spaces using typicalsemiconductor patterning technology. The beginning of line to beginningof line spacing is about 0.15 microns (150 nm). The aluminum line widthand spacing width can vary, but looks to be about a 60 AC/40 size ratioby SEM analysis. The ratio of the metallic line width to space width canbe varied to change the ratio of reflection to transmission. Such anassembly could be used as an electrode in an electro-optic element suchas an electrochromic device or an LCD device. For example, if a silveror silver alloy film is patterned in such a way, it could be used as athird surface reflector electrode in an electrochromic mirror element.The metal grid layer could be overcoated or undercoated with atransparent conductor, such as ITO, ZnO, or tin oxide to enhanceconductivity or electrode stability. The wire grid layer could also beovercoated or undercoated with a thin layer of reflective material suchas silver, silver/gold, gold, aluminum, or other reflective metal ormetal alloy to enhance reflectivity. The reflectivity could also beenhanced by an overcoat or undercoat of a dichroic film stack orenhanced by such typical means of increasing the reflectivity of silveror aluminum films. In this way, a dimming mirror assembly can be madethat will support a high brightness, high resolution display assembly.

Other methods used to reflect light of one type of polarization(circular or linear) and transmit light of the second type ofpolarization are known that may be used as the polarized reflector of avariable reflectivity mirror. A laminated foil made of multiple layersof plastic film wherein some or all of the films layers have an internalmolecular orientation (induced by stretching or other means) thatinduces a directional difference in refractive index can be constructedsuch that the laminated foil reflects one type of polarization andtransmits the second type of polarization.

Cholesteric polarizers can also be made that will reflect one type ofpolarization and transmit the second type of polarization, and thusserve as the polarized reflector for a variable reflectivity mirror.These polarizers can be made such that they are voltage switchable. Inother words, these polarizers can be switched from reflecting the firsttype of polarization and transmitting the second type of polarization totransmitting both types of polarization or they can be switched fromreflecting the second type of polarization and transmitting the firsttype of polarization to transmitting both types of polarization. Thewavelength of light that is reflected by these cholesteric polarizers isdependant on the pitch of the twist in the cholesteric structure. Asingle pitch cholesteric structure reflects a fairly narrow (<100 nm)bandwidth of light. A variable pitch cholesteric structure reflects awider bandwidth of light. The greater the variation in cholestericpitch, the wider the bandwidth of light that is reflected. Such avariable pitch cholesteric structure is described in U.S. Pat. Nos.5,762,823 and 5,798,057, the entire disclosures of which areincorporated herein by reference.

One or two of these switchable variable pitch cholesteric polarizers canbe used in combination with a light emitting display device to constructa variable reflectance rearview mirror with enhanced displayviewability. One switchable variable pitch cholesteric polarizer incombination with a typical TFT LCD assembly can be configured to eitherreflect one type of polarization and transmit the second type ofpolarization that the TFT LCD emits or transmit both types ofpolarization. This construct enables four modes of operation: 1) mirrorat ^(˜)50% reflection, display off; 2) mirror at ^(˜)50% reflection,display on; 3) mirror at ^(˜)0% reflection, display on; and 4) mirror at^(˜)0% reflection, display off (note: the reflectance of the mirrorassembly in this configuration would approximately be the magnitude ofreflection off of the first substrates surface or about 4%).

Two switchable variable pitch cholesteric polarizers used in combinationwith a typical TFT LCD add one additional high reflectance mirror modeto the above. In the high reflectance mode, the first switchablereflective polarizer would reflect one type of polarization and transmitthe second and the second switchable reflective polarizer would reflectthe second type of polarization. In the mid reflectance mode, onereflective polarizer would reflect one type of polarization and transmitthe second type of polarization which is the same polarization of lightthe TFT LCD emits. In the low reflectance mode, both switchablereflective polarizers would transmit both types of polarization. Thisconstruction enables five modes of operation: 1) mirror at ^(˜)100%reflection; 2) mirror at ^(˜)50% reflection, display off; 3) mirror at^(˜)50% reflection, display on; 4) mirror at first surface reflection(^(˜)4%), display off; and 5) mirror at first surface reflection(^(˜)4%), display on. Additional reflectance states may be obtained whenusing one or more switchable variable pitch cholesteric reflectivepolarizers in combination with an electrochromic element positionedbetween the viewer and the polarizer(s). If additional levels ofreflectivity are desired, an electrochromic element may be disposed infront of the cholesteric element(s), or the cholesteric element(s) maybe used alone to a two- or three-state variable reflectivity mirror.

As described further below, switchable variable pitch cholestericreflective polarizers can also be used in vehicle windows, sunroofs,architectural windows, and skylights.

Another embodiment of the present invention is based on the recognitionby the inventors that displays (particularly TFT LCD displays) emitlight from well-defined relatively small light emitting areasconstituting only about 30 percent of the total surface area of thedisplay. According to this embodiment, very small holes or slits arecreated in a highly reflective coating and are aligned with the patternof light emitting areas from the display. Each pixel has a holepositioned to allow light to pass with little attenuation toward thedriver of defined user location. By creating holes of the correct sizealigned with the emitting areas of the display, an average reflectionpercentage of 60% or higher can be achieved and still have very littleattenuation at the points of transmission. This concept can be enhancedin several ways. First the holes need not be round with uniform edges.Holes with complex edges can be made less visible. The hole regions canbe made transflective to further disguise the hole. This sacrifices sometransmission efficiency for better reflector appearance. It is desirableto disguise the display region such that the display is more of an “ondemand” display. This can be further enhanced by employing the holepattern over the entire mirror area. It can be further enhanced bymatching the reflection of the basic display regions in the regions notbacked up by the display.

Further, there is another form allowing a very high reflectionpercentage and no attenuation of the display. This can be achieved byusing a shutter action. The display top surface may carry a highreflection surface matching that of the mirror. When aligned (shutteropen), holes in the display reflecting surface align with holes in themirror reflecting surface and the display becomes visible. If thedisplay is displaced, the holes in the mirror align with the reflectingsurface of the display. This yields a 100% reflecting area. Since thereflecting surfaces can be in direct contact, the only opticaldistortion is due to the thickness of the mirror reflecting layercausing very small ridges around the holes. The resulting opticaldistortions are virtually invisible for viewing angles of use inrearview mirrors.

The shutter movement can be made using ceramic piezo-electrictransducers. Movement can include a component to separate the surfacesas part of allowing the display to shine through. This would avoid anysurface damage due to shutter movement.

The concept of aligning apertures through the reflector with the areasof display emission meets the challenge of creating a highly reflectingsurface and having a high degree of display transmission because itseparates the surface requirements. It has the effect of impacting onlythe display aperture regions. Thus the vast majority of the surfacefunctions as well as a conventional reflector. As a result, means can beused in the aperture areas to switch between reflector and transmissionthat would not be suitable if applied over the entire area. Thisapproach is inherently very robust as a failure only impacts the displayholes not the primary reflecting surface.

By placing an optical device between the display and the mirror surface,light from the display can be converged so more light can be passedthrough a smaller aperture. The light converges to a very small diameterthen diverges at the same angle. If the point of convergence to asmaller diameter is approximately aligned with the holes in thereflecting coating a much larger field of view may be achieved usingsmaller aperture holes and a greater spacing between the display and themirror surface. This would be more practical when the reflector isprovided on the third surface of the mirror element.

An appropriate optical device would be a plastic sheet with molded lensdetails for every pixel. Light from the display radiates to the lenswhere it is converged, through the reflecting layer hole and thendiverges at the same angle as the convergence. To the viewer the displayregions seem larger and the display can be seen from angles greater thancould be achieved if the optical device were removed.

This sheet like optical element can be made by the same processes asthose currently used to make lenticular lens sheets forauto-stereoscopic displays only in this case the lenses would bespherical. It should be noted an auto-stereoscopic display through areflecting surface can also be made using this same basic idea only thehole patterns in the reflecting layer would be formed as narrow verticalslits.

FIG. 15A is a flowchart illustrating a method of receiving informationcorresponding to the user and generating virtual content based on theinformation corresponding to the user retrieved from the database 308,in accordance with an embodiment. At step 1502, the processor 302 maycommunicate with one or more servers 1204 to retrieve informationcorresponding to the user and other participants the user may beconnected with on one or more platforms. The platforms may be forexample, social networking platforms. At step 1504, the processor 302may further receive information corresponding to the user and otherparticipants the user may be connected with on one or more platformsprovided by the user. The user may provide such information manuallythrough a user interface that may be associated with the system 300. Atstep 1506, the database 308 may store the information corresponding tothe user retrieved from different servers 1204 and the informationprovided by the user. Information provided by the user may includeinformation corresponding to one or more users the user may know or maybe willing to participate with, in an activity. At step 1508, theprocessor 302 may learn from the user's profile information retrievedfrom the servers 1204, the user's interest, preferences and priorities.At step 1510, whether the information retrieved from the servers 1204 issufficient to generate the virtual content, may be determined. If theinformation from the servers 1204 is not sufficient, the processor 302,at step 1512, may access the information stored in the database 308,which may be provided by the user. If the information from the servers1204 is sufficient to generate the virtual content, then, at step 1514,the processor 102 may generate virtual content to be rendered anddisplayed to the user based on the information retrieved. Also step 1514may be executed after step 1512.

In an embodiment, the processor 302 may instruct the VR device todisplay a list showing the names or profiles of one or more users whomthe user might have interacted with on one or more platforms earlier.Such profiles may be stored in the database 308. The user may beprovided an option to select one or more users to participate in anactivity with from the displayed list. Such a list may be generated bythe processor 302 by accessing the database 308. The processor 302 mayinstruct the VR device to provide virtual images of one or more of theusers whose names and profile information may be displayed on the list.The processor 302 may render the virtual content and communicate it tothe VR device for display.

The processor 302 through the communication module 1202 may further beconfigured to notify the participants, whose profiles have been selectedby the user, about the user's interest in participating in the activitywith them. One or more of the participants to whom the notification mayhave been communicated, may show interest in joining the user in theactivity. The processor 302 may accept response from one or moreparticipants who may show interest in joining the user in the activity.The processor 302 may render the virtual content displaying the presenceof the participants who may have responded showing interest in joiningthe user. The virtual content may be videos of the other users. The usermay be enabled to communicate or interact with the other users throughthe communication module 1204. The image capturing device of the system300 may capture images of the user and communicate it to the otherusers. Similarly, the respective image capturing devices of the systems300 of the other users may capture the image and voice of the otherusers and communicate it to the user.

In yet another embodiment, the user may be enabled to send requests toone or more participants, whom the user may be acquainted with, to jointhe user during the yoga session. The other participants may accept ordecline the request. The processor 302 may display the virtual presenceof the participants who may have accepted the user's request. Thevirtual content may be videos of the other users. The user may beenabled to communicate with the other participants through voice data.Alternatively, the user may be able to send requests to one or moreusers whom the user may be connected with on a social networkingplatform. The image capturing device of the system 100 may captureimages of the user and communicate it to the other users. Similarly, therespective image capturing devices of the systems 100 of the other usersmay capture the image and voice of the other users and communicate it tothe user. The other users may replicate the actions performed by theuser.

FIG. 15B is a flowchart illustrating the method of rendering virtualcontent based on the user's selection of participants in the activity,in accordance with an embodiment. At step 1516, the processor 302 mayinstruct the VR device to display a list to the user, displaying thenames or profiles of one or more participants, whom the user might haveinteracted with on one or more platforms earlier, to join the user in anactivity. At step 1518, the processor 302, may enable the user to selectfrom the list of users, one or more participants the user may beinterested to participate with. At step 1520, the processor 302 maynotify the participants, whose profiles have been selected by the user.At step 1522, the processor 302 may further enable the user to sendrequests to one or more participants, whom the user may be acquaintedwith, to join the user in an activity. It may be noted that the steps1516 and 1522 can be optional and may be executed individually in twodifferent scenarios. At step 1524, the processor 302 may accept responsefrom one or more participants who may show interest in joining the userin the activity. At step 1526, the processor 302 may render the virtualcontent displaying the presence of the participants who may haveresponded showing interest in joining the user in the activity.

In another embodiment, the processor 302 may be configured to rendervirtual content displaying virtual presence of one or more participantswhom the user may be willing to participate with, based on preconfiguredor configurable set of rules incorporated in the processor 302. Theprocessor 302 may learn from the user's previous interactions and typesof activities and thereby determine, whom the user may be willing toparticipate with for one particular activity. For example, the user mayhave participated in yoga sessions with users A, B and C on oneparticular day and with users B, D and G on a second day. On a thirdday, the processor 302 may render virtual content wherein the virtualcontent may display virtual model of user B and allow the user to selectother users in addition to user B to perform yoga.

FIG. 15C is a flowchart illustrating the method of rendering virtualcontent based on machine learning algorithm incorporated in theprocessor 302, in accordance with an embodiment. At step 1528, themachine learning algorithm incorporated in the processor 302 may beconfigured to learn from activities that had been performed earlier bythe user. At step 1530, the processor 302 may determine the type ofcontent that has to be rendered based on the learning At step 1532, theprocessor 302 may render at least a portion of the virtual content basedon the learning Such content may include images of one or moreparticipants whom the user may have performed an activity with earlier.At step 1534, the processor 302 may determine whether the portion of thevirtual content displayed corresponds to a particular activity. Forexample, the processor 302 may determine whether the model of the userrendered, corresponds to the participant who might have performed theactivity with the user earlier. If the portion of the virtual contentdisplayed does not correspond to the particular activity, then, at step1536, the processor 302 may request for additional information fromuser. At step 1538, the processor 302 may render virtual content usingthe user provided information that may correspond to the activity. Ifthe portion of the virtual content displayed corresponds to theparticular activity, then, at step 1540, the processor 302 may providean option to the user to modify the content. Modifying the content mayinclude adding more participants to the content, removing participantsfrom the content and changing the type of activity, among others. If theuser wishes to modify the content, then at step 1542, the processor 302may receive input from the user to modify or alter the content. At step1544, the processor 102 may render modified virtual content based on theinput received from the user. If the user does not wish to modify thecontent, then at step 1546, the processor 302 may enable the user toperform the activity and communicate with the one or more users duringthe activity.

The processor 302 may render virtual content to the user, displayingvideos of the participants the user might be willing to participatewith. The video data may be integrated with voice data. Alternatively,the processor 302 may generate virtual two or three dimensional modelsof the participants the user might be willing to participate with. Thevirtual two or three dimensional models of the participants may beintegrated with voice data. Further, the processor 302 may be able torender pre recorded voice data to the virtual two or three dimensionalmodels. The user may be able to communicate with the virtual contentdisplaying presence of the participants the user might be willing toparticipate with, through voice and text.

The system 300 may be integrated with one or more social networkingservers 1204 such as Facebook. The system 300 may enable the users tolog in to the social networking portal. The user's profile may beconnected or related with a plurality of other users on the portal. Theuser may be provided an option to communicate with one or more of theplurality of users who may be available or online as seen on the page ofthe social networking portal. The user may be provided an option toparticipate with a plurality of users whom the user may prefer tocommunicate with. Virtual models of one or more of the plurality ofusers may be rendered and displayed to the user for communication. Thecommunication may happen in the form of voice or text.

In an embodiment, the processor 302 may render virtual two or threedimensional models of random users/people that the user may not know inperson. Such random profiles of users whom the user may or may not knowin person may be preconfigured by the processor 302 by receiving inputfrom the user. Further, such profiles may be preconfigured profiles ofother users by the processor 302 may be created by applying intelligencebased on the user's preference, interest and priorities, among others.These preconfigured profiles of random people may be stored in thedatabase 308. Examples of random models may include models ofcelebrities or animated characters, among other profiles. The processor302 may be configured to voice attributes among other such attributes tosuch models. Such random virtual three dimensional models of randomparticipants may be rendered when the user may not be willing tocommunicate with the users who may be connected with the user or suchusers may not be available to communicate at that instant.

In one embodiment, for the system 300 to enable the users to participatein an activity and communicate with the user in virtual reality, it maybe required that all the other users wear their respective VR devices.

Input such as, tactile and gesture input, data indicating pressure andforce vectors, applied through the user's limbs, among others may bereceived through one or more sensors included in the system 300. Theprocessor 302 may be configured to synthesize the input and determinethe visual output or outcome based on the input. The outcome may beapplied to the virtual images to alter one or more parameters (location,size etc) of the objects in the virtual images. Gestures along with thesemantics of each gesture received through the sensors may be stored inthe database 308. The semantics of the gestures may be predefined andstored in the database 308. The database 308 may also store outcomes ofsuch input. The outcomes may indicate one or more physical actionscarried by the user which may be applied to the virtual content tomodify or alter parameters of the content.

In another exemplary scenario, and referring to FIGS. 16A and 16B,virtual content may be displayed to the user to provide the user withthe experience of physically shopping at a location, though the user isindulging in virtual shopping. The system 300 may be able to communicatewith one or more remote servers 1204 via the communication module 1202.The servers 1204 may be associated with one or more service providerssuch as, store websites, online shopping websites and super marketsamong other service providers. Input may be accepted from the users,through a user interface. The user interface may be portals pertainingto the service providers. Input may include requests to view a shoppinglocation, having at least one store, and displaying the shoppinglocation to the user via the virtual interface of the system 300. Theinput may be in the form of URLs provided through a virtual browser thatmay identify a particular service provider's website. The system 300 mayprovide users with experience of walking beside aisles of the stores,entering the store by opening and walking through its doors, examiningthe items on the shelves, and placing them into the shopping cart. Thegesture of picking up an item and placing it in the shopping cart may beperceived as placing an item in the shopping cart.

The virtual content may be preconfigured or configurable by the serviceproviders. The processor 302 may access the servers 1204 associated withthe plurality of service providers and render and display the virtualcontent to the users. The content may be customized for each user andthe customization may be based on the user's profile. The user's profilemay include information corresponding to the user's history of purchase,age, gender, location of the user and the user's preferences, amongothers. The user may create a profile on the portals of the serviceproviders. Alternatively, the servers associated with the serviceproviders may be able to retrieve such information from one or moreservers 1204 associated with one or more platforms where the user mayhave already created a profile. Further, the servers associated with theservice providers may be able to retrieve such information correspondingto the user from the processor 302.

In an embodiment, if the user is virtually shopping at a store, the usermay request to interact with one or more of the store's shoppingassistant while purchasing. The users may post queries and the shoppingassistant, who may provide answers to the queries. In addition, thevirtual content that may be presented to the users by the serviceproviders may enable the users to learn about the store, its brands, orany other information the store may wish to covey to the user. Further,the users may be able to provide feedback based on their experience.

Alternatively, the users may be assisted by virtual shopping assistantsat one or more sections while purchasing. For example, when the user maynot be able to decide between two similar items and spends more timebrowsing at one particular section without placing any item into theshopping cart, the shopping assistant's virtual model may be displayedto the user to assist the user in the purchase. The store keeper mayprovide reviews and feedbacks of other customers to the user and helpthe user make the purchase.

In another embodiment, virtual assistance may be rendered into virtualreality by means of one or more among text and voice as opposed tovirtual models of shopping assistants providing assistance.

In an embodiment, virtual content for an online shopping website may bepre configured or configurable by the service provider. The processor302 may access the servers associated with a plurality of serviceproviders and render and display the virtual content to the users. Theuser may request for the shopping assistant to assist him/her with thepurchase. For example, if the user is shopping for apparels, he/she mayrequest virtual assistance from a stylist or may request for thespecifications of the product. If the user is purchasing a book, theuser may scan through the cover and request for reviews. Reviewsprovided by other users may be displayed in virtual reality. Virtualassistance may also be rendered into virtual reality by means of one ormore among text and voice as opposed to virtual models of random people.

In an embodiment, all information corresponding to a particular productmay be rendered and displayed as soon as the user selects the product orplaces it into the shopping cart, in virtual reality. Information mayinclude all reviews provided by users from across the world,specification of a particular product and a comparison chart between twoor more similar products among others may be rendered to the user invirtual reality. Such information may appear as texts. Such informationmay be presented by random models of users who may have purchased theproduct earlier or who may be associated with the product through audiooutput. Further such information may be presented as one or more amongtexts and voices.

In an embodiment, virtual assistance may be provided to the user basedon the user's profile and purchase history, among others. Alternatively,the users may be provided with options to select assistance whenever theuser might require assistance.

FIG. 16C is a flowchart illustrating the method of rendering virtualcontent to the user to enable the user to shop online or at stores, inaccordance with an embodiment. At step 1602, the processor 302 maycommunicate with one or more remote servers to retrieve informationcorresponding to one or more service providers. At step 1604, theprocessor 302 may allow the user to provide input requesting to view aservice provider's portal/webpage. At step 1606, the processor 302 mayrender virtual content displaying a service provider's webpage. At step1608, the processor 302 may allow the user to browse through differentsections of the service provider's webpage. At step 1610, the processor302 may determine if the user has requested for assistance to make apurchase. If the user has not requested assistance, then the processor302, at step 1612, determines whether the user has selected any product.If the processor 302 determines that the user has requested forassistance to make a purchase, then at step 1614 the processor 302 mayrender virtual content presenting virtual assistance to the user. Afterstep 1614 has been executed, the processor 302 may execute step 1612again until the processor determines that the user has made a selectionat step 1612. If the processor 302 determines that the user has made aselection, then, the processor 302, at step 1616 may render virtualcontent including information corresponding to all or a portion of theproducts the user has selected.

In an embodiment, the user may be provided an option to proceed withpayment after making selection. The user may also be assisted during thepayment. Virtual assistance may be provided to the user to select apayment method and accordingly proceed with the steps of payment. Suchvirtual assistance may be in the form of voice or text or virtual modelsmay be presented to assist the user.

In another embodiment, the system 300 may be integrated with anapplication module that may be implemented for the purpose of enablingthe user to shop online or at physical stores virtually in a two orthree dimensional virtual reality interface. The user may be required tolog into the application module and browse for shops or products orcategories of products through the virtual interface.

In some embodiments, one or more of users participating in theactivities in all the above examples may have cameras or any image orvideo capturing devices integrated with their respective VR devices.Images, photos, videos or live webcam feeds of the users may becommunicated to the other users whom they are participating andcommunicating with.

In an embodiment, the users may communicate with one another in virtualreality via voice communication modules. The users may also communicatewith other users using voice data through a telephone module. The usersmay be enabled to provide voice data through a microphone and receivevoice data from other users through headphones or speakers.

In an embodiment, the rendering module 304 may render enlarged lifesizeviews of three-dimensional content on display surfaces such as walls,floor, ceiling and table surfaces among others.

In an embodiment, live feeds from one or more servers 1204 may bereceived and processed by the processor 302 in near real time togenerate the virtual content.

The system can be used in industrial applications, for example inrepair/maintenance augmentation. One exemplary pseudo-code is

REPAIR AUGMENTATION

User selects AR assisted repair mode,

System identifies surface and components mounted thereon

System looks up repair sequence:

-   -   determines type of component, location of component,

identifies or highlights on the HUD each component to be opened orremoved and provides instructions on removal techniques,

-   -   wait until each component is opened or removed and then show        next component until done    -   accesses the target component to replace or repair and show        instructions to repair or replace,    -   sequentially shows instructions to put back components        previously opened or removed.

In one example, the AR interface may overlay the objects observed on thesorting surface with highlight in which the various objects are outlinedin different colors: e.g. PET as red, PVC, as blue, PE as green, andpolycarbonate as purple. Additional information may includecompositional information appearing as text or additional coding in theAR interface. In one system, the criticality associated with each objectmay be indicated by the brightness of the outline color; more vividcolors may indicate that high attention should be paid to the object.Alternatively, object criticality may be displayed in terms of thejaggedness of outlined shapes in which more jagged outlines indicatelesser criticality. In yet another alternative example, the function ofthe object may be displayed as text superimposed on the object image.

In another implementation, objects may be presented to the illuminationand sensors so that their content may be analyzed and their placement onthe repair surface may be determined by the computing system. Thecomputing system may then supply augmented reality data streams to theAR interface users to inform them of the composition of each of thesortable objects.

In one embodiment for sorting a stream of small objects, a sortingmachine can have a number of lanes on a moving sorting surface, eachlane containing objects having the same composition. For example, as thesorting surface moves between a group of sorters, the sorters may simplypush the objects into a specific lane based on composition. The ARsystem can color code each object to be sorted into a particular lane.At the end of the moving surface, a sorter may have pre-arranged binsplaced to receive the objects from each lane as they fall off thesurface into the appropriate bin. The AR system can provide sensors suchas spectral sensors for a majority determination of composition. In theevent that an object does not have a consistent spectral response,information may be presented over the AR interface to a sorter, lettinghim or her know that the object should be set aside for furtherconsideration. The computing system may provide a group of sorters,using augmented reality interfaces, with information regarding how tobin each object. The sorters may continue to place objects bycomposition into appropriate bins until the bins become full. In oneconfiguration, a sorter may then stop sorting and move the bin to ashipping location. During the time the sorter is away from his or herposition by the sorting surface, the sorter may notify a facilityoperator of this break in the sorting process over a voice transmittingchannel associated with the AR interface. Alternatively, anotherfacility worker may move the bin to a post-processing station (such as astation to box the items for shipping to another facility). If thepost-processing station becomes overburdened due to a large amount ofmaterial to ship out, the post-processing worker may notify the facilityoperator over an AR interface voice channel that the sorting process forthat particular material should be delayed. In either alternative, thefacility operator may then direct the computing system to slow thetravel of the moving sorting surface or even stop it entirely. In thismanner, the sorting process may be adapted to changes in the work flow.

FIG. 17A shows ant exemplary process to continuously determine bloodpressure of a patient. The process generates a blood pressure model of apatient (2002); determines a blood flow velocity using a piezoelectrictransducer (2004); and provides the blood flow velocity to the bloodpressure model to continuously estimate blood pressure (2006). FIG. 17Bshows another exemplary process to continuously determine blood pressureof a patient. First, during an initialization mode, a monitoring deviceand calibration device are attached to patient (2010). The monitoringdevice generates patient blood flow velocity, while actual bloodpressure is measured by a calibration device (2012). Next, the processgenerates a blood pressure model based on the blood flow velocity andthe actual blood pressure (2014). Once this is done, the calibrationdevice can be removed (2016). Next, during an operation mode, theprocess periodically samples blood flow velocity from the monitoringdevice on a real-time basis (18) and provides the blood flow velocity asinput information to the blood pressure model to estimate blood pressure(20). This process can be done in continuously or periodically asspecified by a user.

In one embodiment, to determine blood flow velocity, acoustic pulses aregenerated and transmitted into the artery using an ultrasonic transducerpositioned near a wrist artery. These pulses are reflected by variousstructures or entities within the artery (such as the artery walls, andthe red blood cells within the subject's blood), and subsequentlyreceived as frequency shifts by the ultrasonic transducer. Next, theblood flow velocity is determined. In this process, the frequencies ofthose echoes reflected by blood cells within the blood flowing in theartery differ from that of the transmitted acoustic pulses due to themotion of the blood cells. This well known “Doppler shift” in frequencyis used to calculate the blood flow velocity. In one embodiment fordetermining blood flow velocity, the Doppler frequency is used todetermine mean blood velocity. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,514,211, thecontent of which is incorporated by reference, discusses blood flowvelocity using a time-frequency representation.

In one implementation, the system can obtain one or more numericalcalibration curves describing the patient's vital signs such as bloodpressure. The system can then direct energy such as infrared orultrasound at the patient's artery and detecting reflections thereof todetermine blood flow velocity from the detected reflections. The systemcan numerically fit or map the blood flow velocity to one or morecalibration parameters describing a vital-sign value. The calibrationparameters can then be compared with one or more numerical calibrationcurves to determine the blood pressure.

Additionally, the system can analyze blood pressure, and heart rate, andpulse oximetry values to characterize the user's cardiac condition.These programs, for example, may provide a report that featuresstatistical analysis of these data to determine averages, data displayedin a graphical format, trends, and comparisons to doctor-recommendedvalues.

In one embodiment, feed forward artificial neural networks (NNs) areused to classify valve-related heart disorders. The heart sounds arecaptured using the microphone or piezoelectric transducer. Relevantfeatures were extracted using several signal processing tools, discretewavelet transfer, fast fourier transform, and linear prediction coding.The heart beat sounds are processed to extract the necessary featuresby: a) denoising using wavelet analysis, b) separating one beat out ofeach record c) identifying each of the first heart sound (FHS) and thesecond heart sound (SHS). Valve problems are classified according to thetime separation between the FHS and th SHS relative to cardiac cycletime, namely whether it is greater or smaller than 20% of cardiac cycletime. In one embodiment, the NN comprises 6 nodes at both ends, with onehidden layer containing 10 nodes. In another embodiment, linearpredictive code (LPC) coefficients for each event were fed to twoseparate neural networks containing hidden neurons.

In another embodiment, a normalized energy spectrum of the sound data isobtained by applying a Fast Fourier Transform. The various spectralresolutions and frequency ranges were used as inputs into the NN tooptimize these parameters to obtain the most favorable results.

In another embodiment, the heart sounds are denoised using six-stagewavelet decomposition, thresholding, and then reconstruction. Threefeature extraction techniques were used: the Decimation method, and thewavelet method. Classification of the heart diseases is done usingHidden Markov Models (HMMs).

In yet another embodiment, a wavelet transform is applied to a window oftwo periods of heart sounds. Two analyses are realized for the signalsin the window: segmentation of first and second heart sounds, and theextraction of the features. After segmentation, feature vectors areformed by using he wavelet detail coefficients at the sixthdecomposition level. The best feature elements are analyzed by usingdynamic programming.

In another embodiment, the wavelet decomposition and reconstructionmethod extract features from the heart sound recordings. An artificialneural network classification method classifies the heart sound signalsinto physiological and pathological murmurs. The heart sounds aresegmented into four parts: the first heart sound, the systolic period,the second heart sound, and the diastolic period. The following featurescan be extracted and used in the classification algorithm: a) Peakintensity, peak timing, and the duration of the first heart sound b) theduration of the second heart sound c) peak intensity of the aorticcomponent of S2 (A2) and the pulmonic component of S2 (P2), thesplitting interval and the reverse flag of A2 and P2, and the timing ofA2 d) the duration, the three largest frequency components of thesystolic signal and the shape of the envelope of systolic murmur e) theduration the three largest frequency components of the diastolic signaland the shape of the envelope of the diastolic murmur.

In one embodiment, the time intervals between the ECG R-waves aredetected using an envelope detection process. The intervals between Rand T waves are also determined. The Fourier transform is applied to thesound to detect S1 and S2. To expedite processing, the system appliesFourier transform to detect S1 in the interval 0.1-0.5 R-R. The systemlooks for S2 the intervals R-T and 0.6 R-R. S2 has an aortic componentA2 and a pulmonary component P2. The interval between these twocomponents and its changes with respiration has clinical significance.A2 sound occurs before P2, and the intensity of each component dependson the closing pressure and hence A2 is louder than P2. The third heardsound S3 results from the sudden halt in the movement of the ventriclein response to filling in early diastole after the AV valves and isnormally observed in children and young adults. The fourth heart soundS4 is caused by the sudden halt of the ventricle in response to fillingin presystole due to atrial contraction.

In yet another embodiment, the S2 is identified and a normalizedsplitting interval between A2 and P2 is determined. If there is nooverlap, A2 and P2 are determined from the heart sound. When overlapexists between A2 and P2, the sound is dechirped for identification andextraction of A2 and P2 from S2. The A2-P2 splitting interval (SI) iscalculated by computing the cross-correlation function between A2 and P2and measuring the time of occurrence of its maximum amplitude. SI isthen normalized (NSI) for heart rate as follows: NSI=SI/cardiac cycletime. The duration of the cardiac cycle can be the average interval ofQRS waves of the ECG. It could also be estimated by computing the meaninterval between a series of consecutive S1 and S2 from the heart sounddata. A non linear regressive analysis maps the relationship between thenormalized NSI and PAP. A mapping process such as a curve-fittingprocedure determines the curve that provides the best fit with thepatient data. Once the mathematical relationship is determined, NSI canbe used to provide an accurate quantitative estimate of the systolic andmean PAP relatively independent of heart rate and systemic arterialpressure.

In another embodiment, the first heart sound (S1) is detected using atime-delayed neural network (TDNN). The network consists of a singlehidden layer, with time-delayed links connecting the hidden units to thetime-frequency energy coefficients of a Morlet wavelet decomposition ofthe input phonocardiogram (PCG) signal. The neural network operates on a200 msec sliding window with each time-delay hidden unit spanning 100msec of wavelet data.

In yet another embodiment, a local signal analysis is used with aclassifier to detect, characterize, and interpret sounds correspondingto symptoms important for cardiac diagnosis. The system detects aplurality of different heart conditions. Heart sounds are automaticallysegmented into a segment of a single heart beat cycle. Each segment arethen transformed using 7 level wavelet decomposition, based on Coifman4th order wavelet kernel. The resulting vectors 4096 values, are reducedto 256 element feature vectors, this simplified the neural network andreduced noise.

In another embodiment, feature vectors are formed by using the waveletdetail and approximation coefficients at the second and sixthdecomposition levels. The classification (decision making) is performedin 4 steps: segmentation of the first and second heart sounds,normalization process, feature extraction, and classification by theartificial neural network.

In another embodiment using decision trees, the system distinguishes (1)the Aortic Stenosis (AS) from the Mitral Regurgitation (MR) and (2) theOpening Snap (OS), the Second Heart Sound Split (A2_P2) and the ThirdHeart Sound (S3). The heart sound signals are processed to detect thefirst and second heart sounds in the following steps: a) waveletdecomposition, b) calculation of normalized average Shannon Energy, c) amorphological transform action that amplifies the sharp peaks andattenuates the broad ones d) a method that selects and recovers thepeaks corresponding to S1 and S2 and rejects others e) algorithm thatdetermines the boundaries of S1 and S2 in each heart cycle f) a methodthat distinguishes S1 from S2.

In one embodiment, once the heart sound signal has been digitized andcaptured into the memory, the digitized heart sound signal isparameterized into acoustic features by a feature extractor. The outputof the feature extractor is delivered to a sound recognizer. The featureextractor can include the short time energy, the zero crossing rates,the level crossing rates, the filter-bank spectrum, the linearpredictive coding (LPC), and the fractal method of analysis. Inaddition, vector quantization may be utilized in combination with anyrepresentation techniques. Further, one skilled in the art may use anauditory signal-processing model in place of the spectral models toenhance the system's robustness to noise and reverberation.

In one embodiment of the feature extractor, the digitized heart soundsignal series s(n) is put through a low-order filter, typically afirst-order finite impulse response filter, to spectrally flatten thesignal and to make the signal less susceptible to finite precisioneffects encountered later in the signal processing. The signal ispre-emphasized preferably using a fixed pre-emphasis network, orpreemphasizer. The signal can also be passed through a slowly adaptivepre-emphasizer. The preemphasized heart sound signal is next presentedto a frame blocker to be blocked into frames of N samples with adjacentframes being separated by M samples. In one implementation, frame 1contains the first 400 samples. The frame 2 also contains 400 samples,but begins at the 300th sample and continues until the 700th sample.Because the adjacent frames overlap, the resulting LPC spectral analysiswill be correlated from frame to frame. Each frame is windowed tominimize signal discontinuities at the beginning and end of each frame.The windower tapers the signal to zero at the beginning and end of eachframe. Preferably, the window used for the autocorrelation method of LPCis the Hamming window. A noise canceller operates in conjunction withthe autocorrelator to minimize noise. Noise in the heart sound patternis estimated during quiet periods, and the temporally stationary noisesources are damped by means of spectral subtraction, where theautocorrelation of a clean heart sound signal is obtained by subtractingthe autocorrelation of noise from that of corrupted heart sound. In thenoise cancellation unit, if the energy of the current frame exceeds areference threshold level, the heart is generating sound and theautocorrelation of coefficients representing noise is not updated.However, if the energy of the current frame is below the referencethreshold level, the effect of noise on the correlation coefficients issubtracted off in the spectral domain. The result is half-wave rectifiedwith proper threshold setting and then converted to the desiredautocorrelation coefficients. The output of the autocorrelator and thenoise canceller are presented to one or more parameterization units,including an LPC parameter unit, an FFT parameter unit, an auditorymodel parameter unit, a fractal parameter unit, or a wavelet parameterunit, among others. The LPC parameter is then converted into cepstralcoefficients. The cepstral coefficients are the coefficients of theFourier transform representation of the log magnitude spectrum. A filterbank spectral analysis, which uses the short-time Fourier transformation(STFT) may also be used alone or in conjunction with other parameterblocks. FFT is well known in the art of digital signal processing. Sucha transform converts a time domain signal, measured as amplitude overtime, into a frequency domain spectrum, which expresses the frequencycontent of the time domain signal as a number of different frequencybands. The FFT thus produces a vector of values corresponding to theenergy amplitude in each of the frequency bands. The FFT converts theenergy amplitude values into a logarithmic value which reducessubsequent computation since the logarithmic values are more simple toperform calculations on than the longer linear energy amplitude valuesproduced by the FFT, while representing the same dynamic range. Ways forimproving logarithmic conversions are well known in the art, one of thesimplest being use of a look-up table. In addition, the FFT modifies itsoutput to simplify computations based on the amplitude of a given frame.This modification is made by deriving an average value of the logarithmsof the amplitudes for all bands. This average value is then subtractedfrom each of a predetermined group of logarithms, representative of apredetermined group of frequencies. The predetermined group consists ofthe logarithmic values, representing each of the frequency bands. Thus,utterances are converted from acoustic data to a sequence of vectors ofk dimensions, each sequence of vectors identified as an acoustic frame,each frame represents a portion of the utterance. Alternatively,auditory modeling parameter unit can be used alone or in conjunctionwith others to improve the parameterization of heart sound signals innoisy and reverberant environments. In this approach, the filteringsection may be represented by a plurality of filters equally spaced on alog-frequency scale from 0 Hz to about 3000 Hz and having a prescribedresponse corresponding to the cochlea. The nerve fiber firing mechanismis simulated by a multilevel crossing detector at the output of eachcochlear filter. The ensemble of the multilevel crossing intervalscorresponding to the firing activity at the auditory nerve fiber-array.The interval between each successive pair of same direction, eitherpositive or negative going, crossings of each predetermined soundintensity level is determined and a count of the inverse of theseinterspike intervals of the multilevel detectors for each spectralportion is stored as a function of frequency. The resulting histogram ofthe ensemble of inverse interspike intervals forms a spectral patternthat is representative of the spectral distribution of the auditoryneural response to the input sound and is relatively insensitive tonoise. The use of a plurality of logarithmically related sound intensitylevels accounts for the intensity of the input signal in a particularfrequency range. Thus, a signal of a particular frequency having highintensity peaks results in a much larger count for that frequency than alow intensity signal of the same frequency. The multiple levelhistograms of the type described herein readily indicate the intensitylevels of the nerve firing spectral distribution and cancel noiseeffects in the individual intensity level histograms. Alternatively, thefractal parameter block can further be used alone or in conjunction withothers to represent spectral information. Fractals have the property ofself-similarity as the spatial scale is changed over many orders ofmagnitude. A fractal function includes both the basic form inherent in ashape and the statistical or random properties of the replacement ofthat shape in space. As is known in the art, a fractal generator employsmathematical operations known as local affine transformations. Thesetransformations are employed in the process of encoding digital datarepresenting spectral data. The encoded output constitutes a “fractaltransform” of the spectral data and consists of coefficients of theaffine transformations. Different fractal transforms correspond todifferent images or sounds.

Alternatively, a wavelet parameterization block can be used alone or inconjunction with others to generate the parameters. Like the FFT, thediscrete wavelet transform (DWT) can be viewed as a rotation in functionspace, from the input space, or time domain, to a different domain. TheDWT consists of applying a wavelet coefficient matrix hierarchically,first to the full data vector of length N, then to a smooth vector oflength N/2, then to the smooth-smooth vector of length N/4, and so on.Most of the usefulness of wavelets rests on the fact that wavelettransforms can usefully be severely truncated, or turned into sparseexpansions. In the DWT parameterization block, the wavelet transform ofthe heart sound signal is performed. The wavelet coefficients areallocated in a non-uniform, optimized manner. In general, large waveletcoefficients are quantized accurately, while small coefficients arequantized coarsely or even truncated completely to achieve theparameterization. Due to the sensitivity of the low-order cepstralcoefficients to the overall spectral slope and the sensitivity of thehigh-order cepstral coefficients to noise variations, the parametersgenerated may be weighted by a parameter weighing block, which is atapered window, so as to minimize these sensitivities. Next, a temporalderivator measures the dynamic changes in the spectra. Power featuresare also generated to enable the system to distinguish heart sound fromsilence.

After the feature extraction has been performed, the heart soundparameters are next assembled into a multidimensional vector and a largecollection of such feature signal vectors can be used to generate a muchsmaller set of vector quantized (VQ) feature signals by a vectorquantizer that cover the range of the larger collection. In addition toreducing the storage space, the VQ representation simplifies thecomputation for determining the similarity of spectral analysis vectorsand reduces the similarity computation to a look-up table ofsimilarities between pairs of codebook vectors. To reduce thequantization error and to increase the dynamic range and the precisionof the vector quantizer, the preferred embodiment partitions the featureparameters into separate codebooks, preferably three. In the preferredembodiment, the first, second and third codebooks correspond to thecepstral coefficients, the differenced cepstral coefficients, and thedifferenced power coefficients.

With conventional vector quantization, an input vector is represented bythe codeword closest to the input vector in terms of distortion. Inconventional set theory, an object either belongs to or does not belongto a set. This is in contrast to fuzzy sets where the membership of anobject to a set is not so clearly defined so that the object can be apart member of a set. Data are assigned to fuzzy sets based upon thedegree of membership therein, which ranges from 0 (no membership) to 1.0(full membership). A fuzzy set theory uses membership functions todetermine the fuzzy set or sets to which a particular data value belongsand its degree of membership therein.

To handle the variance of heart sound patterns of individuals over timeand to perform speaker adaptation in an automatic, self-organizingmanner, an adaptive clustering technique called hierarchical spectralclustering is used. Such speaker changes can result from temporary orpermanent changes in vocal tract characteristics or from environmentaleffects. Thus, the codebook performance is improved by collecting heartsound patterns over a long period of time to account for naturalvariations in speaker behavior. In one embodiment, data from the vectorquantizer is presented to one or more recognition models, including anHMM model, a dynamic time warping model, a neural network, a fuzzylogic, or a template matcher, among others. These models may be usedsingly or in combination.

In dynamic processing, at the time of recognition, dynamic programmingslides, or expands and contracts, an operating region, or window,relative to the frames of heart sound so as to align those frames withthe node models of each S1-S4 pattern to find a relatively optimal timealignment between those frames and those nodes. The dynamic processingin effect calculates the probability that a given sequence of framesmatches a given word model as a function of how well each such framematches the node model with which it has been time-aligned. The wordmodel which has the highest probability score is selected ascorresponding to the heart sound.

Dynamic programming obtains a relatively optimal time alignment betweenthe heart sound to be recognized and the nodes of each word model, whichcompensates for the unavoidable differences in speaking rates whichoccur in different utterances of the same word. In addition, sincedynamic programming scores words as a function of the fit between wordmodels and the heart sound over many frames, it usually gives thecorrect word the best score, even if the word has been slightlymisspoken or obscured by background sound. This is important, becausehumans often mispronounce words either by deleting or mispronouncingproper sounds, or by inserting sounds which do not belong.

In dynamic time warping (DTW), the input heart sound A, defined as thesampled time values A=a(1) . . . a(n), and the vocabulary candidate B,defined as the sampled time values B=b(1) . . . b(n), are matched up tominimize the discrepancy in each matched pair of samples. Computing thewarping function can be viewed as the process of finding the minimumcost path from the beginning to the end of the words, where the cost isa function of the discrepancy between the corresponding points of thetwo words to be compared. Dynamic programming considers all possiblepoints within the permitted domain for each value of i. Because the bestpath from the current point to the next point is independent of whathappens beyond that point. Thus, the total cost of [i(k), j(k)] is thecost of the point itself plus the cost of the minimum path to it.Preferably, the values of the predecessors can be kept in an M×N array,and the accumulated cost kept in a 2.times.N array to contain theaccumulated costs of the immediately preceding column and the currentcolumn. However, this method requires significant computing resources.For the heart sound recognizer to find the optimal time alignmentbetween a sequence of frames and a sequence of node models, it mustcompare most frames against a plurality of node models. One method ofreducing the amount of computation required for dynamic programming isto use pruning. Pruning terminates the dynamic programming of a givenportion of heart sound against a given word model if the partialprobability score for that comparison drops below a given threshold.This greatly reduces computation, since the dynamic programming of agiven portion of heart sound against most words produces poor dynamicprogramming scores rather quickly, enabling most words to be prunedafter only a small percent of their comparison has been performed. Toreduce the computations involved, one embodiment limits the search tothat within a legal path of the warping.

A Hidden Markov model can be used in one embodiment to evaluate theprobability of occurrence of a sequence of observations O(1), O(2), . .. O(t), . . . , O(T), where each observation O(t) may be either adiscrete symbol under the VQ approach or a continuous vector. Thesequence of observations may be modeled as a probabilistic function ofan underlying Markov chain having state transitions that are notdirectly observable. The transitions between states are represented by atransition matrix A=[a(i,j)]. Each a(i,j) term of the transition matrixis the probability of making a transition to state j given that themodel is in state i. The output symbol probability of the model isrepresented by a set of functions B=[b(j)(O(t)], where the b(j)(O(t)term of the output symbol matrix is the probability of outputtingobservation O(t), given that the model is in state j. The first state isalways constrained to be the initial state for the first time frame ofthe utterance, as only a prescribed set of left-to-right statetransitions are possible. A predetermined final state is defined fromwhich transitions to other states cannot occur. Transitions arerestricted to reentry of a state or entry to one of the next two states.Such transitions are defined in the model as transition probabilities.For example, a heart sound pattern currently having a frame of featuresignals in state 2 has a probability of reentering state 2 of a(2,2), aprobability a(2,3) of entering state 3 and a probability ofa(2,4)=1−a(2, 1)−a(2,2) of entering state 4. The probability a(2, 1) ofentering state 1 or the probability a(2,5) of entering state 5 is zeroand the sum of the probabilities a(2,1) through a(2,5) is one. Althoughthe preferred embodiment restricts the flow graphs to the present stateor to the next two states, one skilled in the art can build an HMM modelwithout any transition restrictions.

The Markov model is formed for a reference pattern from a plurality ofsequences of training patterns and the output symbol probabilities aremultivariate Gaussian function probability densities. The heart soundtraverses through the feature extractor. During learning, the resultingfeature vector series is processed by a parameter estimator, whoseoutput is provided to the hidden Markov model. The hidden Markov modelis used to derive a set of reference pattern templates, each templaterepresentative of an identified S1-S4 pattern in a vocabulary set ofreference patterns. The Markov model reference templates are nextutilized to classify a sequence of observations into one of thereference patterns based on the probability of generating theobservations from each Markov model reference pattern template. Duringrecognition, the unknown pattern can then be identified as the referencepattern with the highest probability in the likelihood calculator.

FIG. 18A shows an exemplary AR surgical system 3000. The system mayinclude a processor 3090, a memory device 3092, and mass storage device3093. The computing device is communicatively coupled with a displaydevice 3094. The AR display device 3094 may be a body mounted displaysuch as a heads-up display or a glass mounted in an AR system such asthat of FIG. 1, or an additional display device may be positioned awayfrom the computing device. For example, the display device 3094 may bepositioned upon the ceiling or wall of the operating room wherein theorthopaedic surgical procedure is to be performed. Additionally oralternatively, the display device 3094 may include a virtual displaysuch as a holographic display and/or other types of displays. Thecomputing device may be communicatively coupled to one or more cameraunits. The system 3000 may also include sensors or reference arrays 3104which may be coupled to relevant bones of a patient 3106 and/or withorthopaedic surgical tools 3108. For example, a tibial array can be usedthat includes a reference array and bone clamp. The bone clamp may becoupled with a tibia bone of the patient using a Schantz pin, but othertypes of bone clamps may be used. The reference array may be coupledwith the bone clamp via an extension arm. The reference array mayinclude a frame and three reflective elements. The reflective elementsin one embodiment are spherical, but may have other geometric shapes.Additionally, in other embodiments sensor arrays having more than threereflective elements may be used. The reflective elements may bepositioned in a predefined configuration that enables the computingdevice to determine the identity of the tibial array based on theconfiguration. That is, when the tibial array is positioned in a fieldof view of the camera head, the computing device may determine theidentity of the tibial array based on the images received from thecamera head. Additionally, based on the relative position of thereflective elements, the computing device may determine the location andorientation of the tibial array and, accordingly, the tibia to which thearray is coupled.

Reference arrays may also be coupled to other surgical tools. Forexample, a registration tool may be used to register points of a bone.The registration tool may include a sensor array having reflectiveelements coupled with a handle of the tool. The registration tool mayalso include a pointer end that is used to register points of a bone.The reflective elements may be positioned in a configuration thatenables the computing device to determine the identity of theregistration tool and its relative location (i.e., the location of thepointer end). Additionally, reference arrays may be used on othersurgical tools such as a tibial resection jig. The jig may include aresection guide portion that is coupled with a tibia bone at a locationof the bone that is to be resected. The jig may include a referencearray that is coupled with the portion via a frame. The reference array146 may include three reflective elements 148 that may be positioned ina configuration that enables the computing device to determine theidentity of the jig and its relative location (e.g., with respect to thetibia bone).

During the performance of the orthopaedic surgical procedure, a customsurgical plan may include one or more instructions that program orotherwise configure the HUD to display images of the individual surgicalprocedure steps which form the orthopaedic surgical procedure beingperformed. The images may be graphically rendered images or graphicallyenhanced photographic images. For example, the images may include threedimensional rendered images of the relevant anatomical portions of apatient. The surgeon may interact with the computing device to displaythe images of the various surgical steps in sequential order. Inaddition, the surgeon may interact with the computing device to viewpreviously displayed images of surgical steps, selectively view images,instruct the computing device to render the anatomical result of aproposed surgical step or procedure, or perform other surgical relatedfunctions. For example, the surgeon may view rendered images of theresulting bone structure of different bone resection procedures. In thisway, the custom surgical plan may configure the system 3000 to provide asurgical “walk-through” customized to the patient 106 that the surgeonmay follow while performing the surgical procedure.

In one embodiment, the custom surgical plan may include an orderedselection of instructional images that depict individual surgical stepsthat make up at least a portion of the orthopaedic surgical procedure tobe performed. The instructional images may include images of surgicaltools and associated text information, graphically rendered images ofsurgical tools and relevant patient anatomy, and/or other images and/ortext information that assist the surgeon during the surgical procedure.The instructional images may be stored in an electronic library, whichmay be embodied as, for example, a database, a file folder or storagelocation containing separate instructional images and an associatedlook-up table, hard-coded information. The surgical plan may includeamong other things an ordered selection of instructional images that aredisplayed to the surgeon via the display device 3094 such that theinstructional images provide a surgical “walk-through” of the procedureor portion thereof. The surgical plan may also include a number ofsurgical sub-step images, some of which may or may not be displayed toand performed by the surgeon based on selections chosen by the surgeonduring the performance of the orthopaedic surgical procedure.

In some embodiments, the surgeon may also interact with the computingdevice to control various devices of the system 3000. For example, thesurgeon may interact with the system 3000 to control user preferences orsettings of the AR display device 3094. Further, the computing devicemay prompt the surgeon for responses. For example, the computing device62 may prompt the surgeon to inquire if the surgeon has completed thecurrent surgical step, if the surgeon would like to view other images,and/or other surgical procedure inquiries.

The AR system may be used to generate pre-operative orthopaedic surgicalplans, surgical notes created during an orthopaedic surgery, medicalimages of a patient's bone (and soft tissue) and/or orthopaedic implantscoupled thereto, and/or other data. Such data generated via the system3000 may be stored in the database by, for example, transmitting thedata from the system 3000 to the database via the network. Additionally,other medical devices typically found in a hospital or other healthcarefacility may be used to generate medical images of a bone (and, in someembodiments, soft tissue) of the patient. Such medical images may alsobe stored in the database. The medical images may be embodied as anytype of medical image providing a visual indication of a relevant boneor bones (and soft tissue if desired) of a patient. For example, themedical images may be embodied as any number of X-ray images, magneticresonance imaging (MRI) images, computerized tomography (CT) images, orthe like. Regardless, such medical images may be stored in the database28 along with associated data relevant to the particular medical images.Such associated data may include, but is not limited to, the patient'sname and other patient identification information, date of the images,surgeon's or doctor's name, the name of the hospital or healthcarefacility wherein the medical images were generated, and the like.

What is claimed is:
 1. A reality system comprising: a display lensremovably contacting an eye, including one or more acoustic elementsthereon; a processor coupled to cameras and to the display lens, theprocessor providing visual assistance to the person by running code forpanorama stitching, the processor further providing augmented visionincluding automated object recognition and facial recognition withlimited information processing by determining a position and shape of anobject based on edge locations in time-correlated images from twocameras, and determining motion from successive pairs of images aftersubjecting the images to edge detection or thresholding and thenscaling, cropping or centering the recognized object or face to aid theperson; and a wireless transceiver coupled to the transceiver tocommunicate with a remote processor.
 2. The system of claim 1, whereinthe remote processor is in a mobile phone, and wherein the processorselectably switches between augmented reality and virtual reality, theprocessor including code to perform motion tracking and understanding anenvironment with points or planes using accelerometer sensor andestimating light or color in the environment using one video camerawithout a depth sensor in a mobile phone; code to capture images from aplurality of angles of the environment; code to acquire sensor data fromsensors and optimize features extracted from each image and sensor data,where a feature conveys data unique to the image at a specific pixellocation, comprising: a learning machine that determines content to bepresented based on previous activities or selections while generatingcontent including virtual images to be integrated with surroundingimages.
 3. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more acousticelements are coupled to the wireless transceiver to communicate audio.4. The system of claim 1, wherein the display lens comprises one of: EEGdetector, EKG detector, GSR (galvanic skin response) detector, bloodpressure detector, heart rate detector, emotion detector, bioelectricimpedance (BI) sensor electromagnetic detector, ultrasonic detector,optical detector.
 5. The system of claim 1, comprising a plurality ofcameras to detect eye movement, mouth movement, and hand gesture.
 6. Thesystem of claim 5, wherein the transceiver receives camera data orprocessed data from a mobile or portable device.
 7. The system of claim5, wherein the cameras are positioned in front of the person.
 8. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the desired visualization mode is one of anaugmented reality mode, a virtual reality mode, a blended reality mode,and a combination of augmented and virtual reality modes.
 9. The systemof claim 1, comprising a power supply on the display lens and includingone of: an energy transfer antenna to receive power from radio frequencysignal, a chemical power supply, and a solar cell.
 10. The system ofclaim 1, comprising code for displaying either entirely virtual objects,entirely physical objects or a combination of virtual objects andphysical objects.
 11. The system of claim 1, wherein the processoroperates to distract the person.
 12. The system of claim 1, comprising acontent generator driving the head-mounted device with a predeterminedcontent for the detected object or person.
 13. The system of claim 1,comprising a laser sweeper that paints rods and cones with a particularimage to be displayed on an eye.
 14. The system of claim 1, wherein theprocessor provides automatic identification of food based on: color andtexture analysis; image segmentation; image pattern recognition; andvolumetric analysis.
 15. The system of claim 1, comprising a drugdelivery unit to deliver a drug or an active agent at a second selectedtime as part of a treatment relative to the selected time.
 16. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the processor detects objects and displaysthe recognized object to aid the person.
 17. A reality systemcomprising: a display removably contacting an eye, the display providing3D images, the display further including one or more acoustic elementsthereon; a processor coupled to cameras and to the display, theprocessor providing visual assistance to a person by running code forpanorama stitching, the processor further providing augmented visionincluding automated object recognition and facial recognition withlimited information processing by determining a position and shape of anobject based on edge locations in time-correlated images from twocameras, and determining motion from successive pairs of images aftersubjecting the images to edge detection or thresholding and scalingbased on a radius of the recognized face or object, cropping andcentering the images in a predetermined region for the recognized objector face to aid the person; and a wireless transceiver coupled to thetransceiver to communicate with a remote processor.